A 31-year-old black man, Keenan Anderson, was killed in Los Angeles early this month after his arrest, according to American media. That happened in the settlement of a traffic accident and after an officer had used a taser against him, reports The Washington Post. The official cause of death has not yet been determined. His death is receiving attention in the US because Anderson was the cousin of Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of the international movement Black Lives Matter.
Video footage taken with an officer’s bodycam and released by the US city’s police force shows Andersom asking for help as police officers hold him to the ground. He can be heard yelling “they’re trying to make him George Floyd,” in reference to the black man who was killed in an arrest by a police officer in 2020. The officer can then be seen using his taser, an electroshock weapon, twice and for a period of 30 seconds.
The Washington Post writes that Anderson was then handcuffed and taken to hospital by ambulance. He died there after a cardiac arrest, of no apparent cause. The incident happened on January 3.
‘Difficult to digest’
Black Lives Matter started worldwide after the death of George Floyd. Cullors, Anderson’s relative who helped found the movement, told the American newspaper that the situation was “difficult to digest”.
According to the newspaper, the Los Angeles Police Department is already under fire because two other detainees were killed by officers in the first days of January. In those cases, agetes had fired fatal shots. Mayor Karen Bass called the incidents “deeply disturbing” and an investigation has been announced. Police Chief Michel Moore also says he is “very concerned” about the incidents.
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