Family of double amputee Anthony Lowe Jr. shot dead seek justice

The family of a double amputee shot dead by California cops is seeking answers to why they needed to kill a wheelchair-bound man – while his ex-wife said video of the incident “broke me.”

Anthony Lowe Jr., 36, stabbed a person in Huntington Park on Jan. 26 and was wielding a butcher’s knife when cops tased and shot him about 10 times after he leaped out of his chair, officials said.

Police said an officer opened fire because he was afraid Lowe was going to throw the large knife at him.

“I just want the truth,” his mother Dorothy Lowe told reporters Monday, the Los Angeles Times reported. “Nothing but the truth and justice for my son. My son was murdered.”

She added: “Anthony was a good person. He was always there for his family. He’s our protector.”

Lowe’s teenaged son and daughter stood next to the grandmother with their heads bowed, holding photographs of their late father.

“I want to achieve truth and justice, because if anybody else would have shot Anthony, with him being a disabled person, they would be in jail now for murder,” said Ebonique Simon, the mother of Lowe’s son, NBC News reported.

“They wouldn’t be out taking leave with pay,” she added.

Lowe’s older sister, Yatoya Toy, said his legs were amputated after an altercation with police in Texas last year.  

Meanwhile, Lowe’s ex-wife Myissha Simpson-Lowe, 39, said she had been struggling to come to terms with his disability when he was killed, the Daily Mail reported.

“Seeing the video broke me. I’m sorry … He was helpless. He was not a threat. He couldn’t do anything. He was trying to get away,” Simpson-Lowe told the news outlet.

“I just want justice, please. The whole matter of fact is this is a man who is the size of a child, basically. What threat was that? What threat was that?” Simpson-Lowe said.

“For them to do anything, it could have been done in a non-lethal way. What happened to rubber bullets? What happened to the beanbags they used to shoot?” she continued.

“Bullets? That wasn’t necessary. I would like to see those cops prosecuted,” added the woman, who divorced Lowe in 2021.

The LA County Sheriff’s Department’s homicide unit is investigating the incident, as is typical for shootings involving Huntington Park police officers, the unit’s Lt. Hugo Reynaga told the LA Times.

The unidentified Huntington Park officers involved in the shooting have been placed on paid administrative leave.

Grainy cellphone video shared online shows leaving his wheelchair behind and hopping along the sidewalk, followed by cops with their guns drawn. The shooting is not seen in the footage.

Huntington Park police said the cops responded to a report of a stabbing victim, who had suffered a collapsed lung and internal bleeding when he was attacked by a black man in a wheelchair.

“The suspect dismounted his wheelchair, ran to the victim without provocation, and stabbed him in the side of the chest with a 12” butcher knife,” police said in the statement. “The suspect then ran back to the wheelchair and fled the scene in the wheelchair.”

Lowe ignored police commands as he “threatened to advance or throw the knife” at the cops, who then tased him, the statement said.

When that didn’t work, they shot him and he died on the sidewalk, police said.

Ed Obayashi, an expert in use-of-force probes, said that to justify a shooting, police must show they had been under immediate threat and had considered reasonable alternatives, such as a Taser.

“But here we see an individual that, by definition, appears to be physically incapable of resisting officers,” he told NBC News.

“Even if he is armed with a knife, his mobility is severely restricted,” he said. “He’s an amputee. He appears to be at a distinct physical disadvantage, lessening the apparent threat to officers.”

Toy said her brother was afraid of police and most likely tried to flee like Keenan Anderson, a black man who screamed, “They’re trying to George Floyd me!” during an altercation with Los Angeles cops last month.

“George Floyd’s murder really affected him,” Toy said about Lowe, NBC reported. “All this police brutality is why he ran. He feared for his life. He was terrified.”