Police killing of double amputee in wheelchair sparks outcry and demand for answers

Explore Our Galleries

A man stands in front of the Djingareyber mosque on February 4, 2016 in Timbuktu, central Mali.
Mali's fabled city of Timbuktu on February 4 celebrated the recovery of its historic mausoleums, destroyed during an Islamist takeover of northern Mali in 2012 and rebuilt thanks to UN cultural agency UNESCO.
TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY SEBASTIEN RIEUSSEC / AFP / SÉBASTIEN RIEUSSEC

African Peoples Before Captivity

Shackles from Slave Ship Henrietta Marie

Kidnapped: The Middle Passage

Image of the first black members of Congress

Reconstruction: A Brief Glimpse of Freedom

The Lynching of Laura Nelson_May_1911 200x200

One Hundred Years of Jim Crow

I Am Somebody! The Struggle for Justice

NOW: Free At Last?

Memorial to the Victims of Lynching

The Freedom-Lovers’ Roll Call Wall

Frozen custard in Milwaukee's Bronzeville

Special Exhibits

Breaking News!

Today's news and culture by Black and other reporters in the Black and mainstream media.

Click Here

Ways to Support ABHM?

Click Here

February 1, 2023

By Alicia Victoria Lozano, NBC News

Lowe's family at a press conference — Family members of Anthony Lowe hold a press conference in front of the police department on Monday, Jan. 30, 2023 in Huntington Park, Calif. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

LOS ANGELES — The death of a double amputee wielding a large knife whom police shot in Huntington Park, California, has sparked a national outcry against the use of force against a person with a disability.

Police say Anthony Lowe, a Black man who lost both his legs last year and had not yet received prosthetics, stabbed a person last Thursday before they used a stun gun and shot him about 10 times throughout his upper body.

Lowe’s family questioned why it was necessary to kill a man who needed a wheelchair to get around.

“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 15-year-old son. “They wouldn’t be out taking leave with pay.”

[…]

Huntington Park police declined to comment on Lowe’s death or say what happened before the encounter because the shooting is under investigation.

NBC News has more details.

Disabled citizens are especially at risk for police violence.

More breaking news here.

Comments Are Welcome

Note: We moderate submissions in order to create a space for meaningful dialogue, a space where museum visitors – adults and youth –– can exchange informed, thoughtful, and relevant comments that add value to our exhibits.

Racial slurs, personal attacks, obscenity, profanity, and SHOUTING do not meet the above standard. Such comments are posted in the exhibit Hateful Speech. Commercial promotions, impersonations, and incoherent comments likewise fail to meet our goals, so will not be posted. Submissions longer than 120 words will be shortened.

See our full Comments Policy here.