Authorities released audio and video Monday related to the fatal police shooting of a knife-wielding suspect near Los Angeles last month, while the man who was stabbed said the attack was random and he initially thought He was only punched before bleeding out.
The stabbing victim was interviewed by Fox 11 in a hospital room where he was recovering after a January 26 attack by a man who used a wheelchair in downtown Huntington Park.
The Huntington Park Police Department released 911 calls related to the stabbing, along with surveillance video of the moments before responding officers opened fire on the suspect, who they said threatened them with a large knife. The suspect, later identified as Anthony Lowe, was shot in the upper torso and died at the scene.
Police Chief Cosme Lozano said his agency is cooperating with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which is investigating the shooting.
“I emphasize that by releasing the video and audio recordings, it is with the goal of furthering full disclosure and transparency of the events that took place,” Lozano said during a news conference.
The news station said the victim, a warehouse worker and father of four, asked to be identified only by his first name, Remiro.
Ramiro described a random attack on a sidewalk in which, for a moment, he believed he had only been punched and then realized his wound was much worse. Ramiro said he was crossing a street when he saw a man get out of his wheelchair with both of his legs amputated below the knees. Ramiro said the man asked her if she was okay.
“I turn and look at him, and I go, ‘Yeah,'” Remiro said. “And at that point, he punched me.”
Ramiro said that he did not initially see the knife, but then noticed that blood was coming out of his armpit.
Surveillance video of the stabbing appears to support the victim’s accounts of the 911 call she made and then to Fox 11. It shows Ramiro passing a gas station when he comes across a man with both legs amputated below the knees. The man kicks Ramiro in the side and then a scuffle ensues.
According to a sheriff’s department statement, when responding officers approached the suspect minutes later, he pulled out a foot-long (30 cm) knife and tried to lunge at them.
The officers used a stun gun on him and the man tried to throw the knife again, “at which time an officer fired,” the statement said.
In the surveillance video, which has no audio, an officer overturns the wheelchair the man was in, and he falls to the sidewalk. He leaves the wheelchair behind and scrambles along the sidewalk and is followed by three officers with their guns drawn. He turns to the officers and raises a knife before opening fire and he falls.
Lozano stated that there was approximately 7 minutes between the stabbing and the shots fired by the officers. The chief said that Huntington Park officers do not use body cameras.
The officers involved in the shooting were placed on administrative leave during the investigation.
Ramiro said the knife had punctured and collapsed his lung, but doctors were concerned it may have hit his heart as well.
Fox 11 reported that Ramiro said he felt sorry for the stabbing suspect’s family but did not feel pity for the suspect.
“I am suffering,” he said. “Why should I pity a person who does such a thing?”
Lowe’s family and community activists held a news conference last week demanding that the officers who killed him be prosecuted. At another news conference Monday, attorneys for Lowe’s relatives questioned the officers’ decision to fire.
“Certainly, there were non-lethal options. He wasn’t going anywhere,” said attorney Eric Dubin.
Lowe’s older sister, Yatoya Toye, said last week that Anthony had his legs amputated after an altercation with law enforcement in Texas last year, the Los Angeles Times reported. He said that the family is also raising questions regarding that incident.
Sheriff’s officials did not have additional details Monday about the Huntington Park investigation. The sheriff’s department and district attorney’s office typically investigate law enforcement shootings in the county to determine whether the officers should face discipline or criminal charges.