The Los Angeles Police Department on Wednesday said it has launched investigations into the deaths of three men after encounters with their officers. In two of the cases, the officers shot and killed the civilians.
The LAPD said its officers fatally shot 45-year-old Takar Smith on Jan. 2 and 35-year-old Oscar Sanchez on Jan. 3. Also on Jan. 3, 31-year-old Keenan Anderson died hours after a struggle with police officers in which he was shocked with a stun gun. The department released body-worn camera video of the three incidents Wednesday.
“Full investigations are underway, and I pledge that the City's investigations into these deaths will be transparent and will reflect the values of Los Angeles,” Mayor Karen Bass said in a press release. “I will ensure that the City’s investigations will drive only toward truth and accountability. Furthermore, the officers involved must be placed on immediate leave.”
Bass extended her condolences to the families of Smith, Sanchez and Anderson. She added that she had “grave concerns about the deeply disturbing tapes” released Wednesday.
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Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michael Moore said the "cluster of events" "deeply concerned" him and that, given the "substantial public interest" and the desire of the men's families for police to release body-worn video and other evidence, he expedited the release of the video, which usually takes 45 days.
Death of Takar Smith
Smith’s death happened on the 200 block of South Witmer Street after a woman called 911 to report that Smith was violating a restraining order and in her home. On the call, the woman said Smith was “acting crazy” and that he was off his medication for schizophrenia. She told the dispatcher that Smith had likely grabbed a knife and said he wasn’t going back to jail.
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She later told responding officers outside the residence that Smith refused to leave and that she feared he would “put his hands” on her. The woman said there was a knife inside and that Smith had already threatened to fight the police.
After a supervisor arrived, officers initiated contact with Smith. Body camera video from one officer shows Smith answering the door and one officer asking him to step outside to talk. Smith steps back into the apartment while saying that he’s getting his shoes. Still standing at the door, the officer asks Smith to relax and step outside. Smith quickly begins shouting at officers to not “do all that.”
Another officer tells Smith that if he hurts police, he will be Tased. The interaction with police lasts several minutes, with officers trying to calm Smith down and him at times growing agitated. Throughout, the officer who first entered the apartment attempts to talk Smith down.
At one point, things escalate as the man grabs a chair and refuses to put it down, even after being threatened with getting hit by a rubber bullet. After Smith puts down the chair near the entrance to the kitchen, the officer continues attempting to coax Smith outside.
The dialogue continues in the kitchen, with Smith shouting at police, at times unintelligibly. He eventually makes his way back to the entrance of the kitchen, only to go back in and briefly grab what the LAPD said was a 10-inch “butcher style” knife from the counter, prompting one officer to raise his stun gun and another to point what appears to be his service weapon.
Smith quickly puts the knife back down, and the officer holding the Taser tells him that if he grabs it again, he will be stunned. “We’re going to be here all day,” Smith says. Another officer tells Smith he needs to come out and “stop playing childish games,” which angers him.
At this point, Smith has placed two bicycles between himself and the police. He grabs one bike and picks it up, prompting an officer to deploy the stun gun. The tactic does not appear to phase Smith much, prompting the officer to call for a “second Taser.”
It’s at that point that Smith again grabs the knife. Officers stun Smith again and deploy pepper spray as he falls to his knees. They continue shouting at him to drop the knife, and he says that he doesn’t have anything.
The officers briefly stop shocking Smith, at which point he grabs the knife again. Police continue telling him to drop it, but he briefly raises it above his head. At that point, two officers fired their guns for a total of seven shots, LAPD Chief Moore said.
The LAPD said officers rendered aid for around eight minutes, until Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics arrived. Smith, however, died at the scene.
Moore said he had "concerns" neither the police dispatcher nor the officers or on-scene supervisor ever contacted the department's mental evaluation units or mental assessment response team for help.
Death of Oscar Sanchez
The next day, LAPD officers killed Sanchez in South LA.
The department released a 911 call from a woman reporting a man with a knife. She said he threw a knife at a car and that he was pacing back and forth and waiting for another car at which to hurl something. Another 911 caller also reported Sanchez throwing things at cars, including metal objects. He tells the dispatcher that Sanchez tried to assault him and did assault others.
Video from a business in the area showed Sanchez walking around with some sort of long stick in his hand and throwing things at passing cars. The LAPD said the “makeshift spear” was a 2-foot-long metal object with a 3-inch spike protruding from one end.
By the time officers arrived, Moore said, Sanchez was standing on the second-story landing of an abandoned residence while holding the makeshift spear in one hand and a metal chain in the other. After officers arrived, one of them began speaking to him in Spanish, bodycam video showed.
They continued trying to coax Sanchez down for several minutes, the LAPD said. Bodycam video captured Sanchez shouting back in Spanish, “You’re not going to rob me, idiot” before retreating inside the residence.
Eventually, one shield-carrying officer leads a group up the stairs and opens a door. One officer is heard telling Sanchez, in Spanish, to come out. Quickly thereafter, another officer is heard telling him in English to, “Put that down.”
Officers are then heard in the video firing several shots. Moore said two officers fired three shots each while another officer simultaneously fired an additional "less lethal" round.
Sanchez moaned in pain. After handcuffing Sanchez, the officers carried him to the base of the stairs, where paramedics began rendering aid, the LAPD said. The department said officers also recovered a utility knife at the scene.
Sanchez later died at a local hospital.
Death of Keenan Anderson
Anderson died Jan. 3 after going into cardiac arrest about 4-and-a-half hours after officers shocked him during a struggle in Venice near the intersection of Lincoln and Venice boulevards, the LAPD said. The department later said he had attempted to carjack somebody and then caused a crash.
Bodycam video shows Anderson running in the middle of the street alongside a motorcycle officer. He tells the officer to help him and points in another direction. The officer drives in that direction, at which point people point him back to Anderson.
The officer drives back and again encounters Anderson in the middle of the street.
“Somebody’s trying to kill me,” Anderson says, jogging onto the sidewalk. The officer tells Anderson to stop and to get up against a wall, prompting Anderson to drop to his knees and put his hands behind his head while telling the officer, “I didn’t mean to.”
The officer gets off his bike, walks toward Anderson and asks him to calm down. An agitated Anderson says that he lost his key and had someone come and fix his car for him. The officer asks him to sit down with his legs crossed.
Anderson tells the officer that somebody is trying to kill him and that somebody is going to try to put stuff in his car. The LAPD said Anderson tried to run away about seven minutes later.
Anderson is then shown standing and asking for water. The officer tells him he’ll get him some water but to sit against the wall. Anderson begins walking away and saying he wants people to see him. The officer tells him to sit on the sidewalk, closer to the intersection, if he wants people to see him.
Anderson continues walking away into traffic, with the officer asking him to come back. Anderson runs off, prompting the officer to get back on his motorcycle and briefly chase him.
The officer quickly comes upon Anderson again in the middle of traffic and shouts at him to get on the ground. Anderson puts his hands behind his head and sits down. The officer shouts at him to turn over onto his stomach. Anderson gets on his side and appears briefly to try to get up.
Two other officers quickly rush over and all three grab at the man, who shouts for help and says the police are trying to kill him. The motorcycle officer calls his name and tells him to “relax.”
Anderson continues shouting that the officers are trying to kill him. Bodycam videos from other officers show police holding Anderson down and telling him to calm down or they’ll deploy their Tasers.
“They’re trying to George Floyd me. They’re trying to George Floyd me,” Anderson says, referencing the man killed while handcuffed by police officers in Minneapolis in 2020.
Anderson calls the officers “actors” and repeatedly shouts “C Lo,” saying, “They think I killed C Lo. They think I killed C Lo” while shouting for help.
During the struggle, an officer uses the stun gun on the man. They’re eventually able to handcuff Anderson and bind his legs together.
The LAPD said LAFD paramedics arrived about one minute later and rendered aid to the man. About five minutes later, the department said, paramedics took Anderson to a local hospital, where he died from cardiac arrest some 4-and-a-half hours after being shocked by the Taser.
"He was clearly not in his right mind, yet he was handled with such force," said Carl Douglas, an attorney for the Anderson family.
The LAPD said its forensic toxicology unit conducted a toxicology exam on Jan. 5 and determined Anderson had cocaine metabolite and cannabinoids in his system. The Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office will conduct its own toxicology exam, the department added.
Mayor Bass said that no matter what the investigations into the three deaths determine, Los Angeles must work to reduce police use-of-force incidents.
“No matter what these investigations determine, however, the need for urgent change is clear. We must reduce the use of force overall, and I have absolutely no tolerance for excessive force. We must also lead our city forward – finally – on the mental health crisis that has been allowed to grow, fester and cause so much harm to individual Angelenos, their families and our communities,” she said.
