“They’re trying to George Floyd me!” Keenan Anderson can be heard repeatedly screaming, referring to the Minneapolis man who was killed at the hands of police in May 2020.
Keenan Anderson, a 31-year-old teacher and father, from Washington, D.C. who was visiting Los Angeles died after being repeatedly tased and going into cardiac arrest after being detained by the LAPD, according to reports.
Anderson, the cousin of Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, died hours after police repeatedly used a taser and restrained him in the middle of a Venice, California, street following a traffic accident, according to bodycam footage released by authorities Wednesday.
Anderson was reportedly in a traffic collision and when police arrived had allegedly asked for help, and in the police footage can be seen in distress, telling an officer “somebody is trying to kill me.”
At a news conference Wednesday when the footage was released, Police Chief Michel Moore said Anderson had attempted to flee the scene by trying to "get into another person's car without their permission.”
LAPD Chief Michel Moore said the body cam footage was released in response to calls for their release from families.
“This is not, again, to do anything other than to demonstrate our commitment to full transparency and to judge this on the merits of what the investigation shows us and to ask for the public’s patience as we go about this engagement,” he said at a news conference Wednesday.
In the edited bodycam footage, Anderson is seen being detained by multiple officers as he begs for his life. One of the cop’s appears to have his elbow on Anderson’s neck in the middle of the road.
“They’re trying to George Floyd me!” Anderson can be heard repeatedly screaming, referring to the Minneapolis man who was killed at the hands of police in May 2020.
Anderson is then tased multiple times and taken into custody. He was transferred by ambulance to a hospital in Santa Monica and was pronounced dead after suffering cardiac arrest, according to a police news release.
A toxicology report produced by the LAPD Wednesday said that Anderson's blood tested positive for cannabis and cocaine. The Los Angeles County coroner's office will conduct a separate report.
Following his death, his cousin Patrisse Cullors took to social media and said Anderson was “killed by LAPD.”
“Keenan deserves to be alive right now, his child deserves to be raised by his father,” Cullors wrote. “Keenan we will fight for you and for all of our loved ones impacted by state violence. I love you.”
Anderson, who taught tenth-grade English at Digital Pioneers Academy in Washington, D.C., was visiting family in Los Angeles over winter break, according to the school.
The school’s founder, Mashea Ashton, released a statement online and said, “The details of his death are as disturbing as they are tragic. Keenan was a deeply committed educator and father of a six-year-old son. … He was beloved by all.”
Inside Edition Digital has reached out to the LAPD for comment on this story but has not heard back.
Following the news release Wednesday by the LAPD, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called for all of the officers involved in three separate fatal police encounter incidents in the city recently to be “placed on immediate leave.”
“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,” Bass said in a news release. “I will ensure that the City’s investigations will drive only toward truth and accountability.”
Carl Douglas, an attorney representing Anderson’s family, gave Inside Edition Digital the following statement:
"31-year-old Keenan Anderson died because most law enforcement officers are poorly trained and ill equipped to deal with citizens who are then in the midst of a mental health crises. An unarmed man, who was at worse involved in a minor traffic collision, was attacked by three officers, and tasered SEVEN separate times, at the back of his heart. LAPD policy speaks against the multiple use of taser activations. As a result of their unreasonable and excessive conduct, merely trying to handcuff an unarmed man who voluntarily had laid on the ground to submit, and a five-year-old boy has lost his father forever. If three trained police officers are unable to handcuff an unarmed laying on the ground, they deserve to be fired from the LAPD, because they pose an unreasonable risk to our citizens."
A GoFundMe page has been set up for Anderson's son.
