Lawyers representing the five-year-old son of a man who died in the United States after being shocked repeatedly with a stun gun by Los Angeles police have launched a $50 million lawsuit against the city. Before Keenan Anderson’s son to sue the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) for civil rights violations, he must first file a claim. Officers Tasered his father six times in less than a minute to subdue him on January 3. “He was a flower just about to bloom, but the LAPD regrettably was a hammer,” Carl Douglas, the family’s lawyer, said at a press conference announcing the case. “They handled the blossom as if it were a nail.” The action was filed on Friday on behalf of Anderson’s son, Syncere Kai Anderson, who was represented by their attorneys with his mother, Gabrielle Hansell.
Anderson, a 31-year-old high school English teacher in Washington, DC, and cousin of Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, was a suspect in a hit-and-run traffic mishap in Venice, California, on the United States’ west coast. He allegedly fled from authorities and resisted arrest. According to a video provided by the LAPD, Anderson pleaded for aid after cops pinned him to the ground. “They’re attempting to murder me!” shouted Anderson. An cop was seen shoving his forearm over Anderson’s chest and his elbow against his neck. “They’re trying to George Floyd me,” Anderson claimed, referring to the Black man slain by Minnesota police officers. Anderson initially cooperated with investigators while they examined if he was under the influence of narcotics or alcohol, according to Police Chief Michel Moore.
He was apprehended after running into the middle of the roadway and resisting arrest. According to the chief, an LAPD toxicology test detected cocaine and cannabis in Anderson’s corpse, but those findings are different from the coroner’s impartial conclusion. The cops involved have not been identified yet but their union released a statement stating the family and its attorneys were “seeking to shamelessly profit” from a “tragic tragedy”. Anderson slipped into cardiac arrest after being subdued and died four hours later at a hospital.
