The arrest of Keenan Anderson was captured on bodycam footage (Police handout)​

Los Angeles, January 13 (RHC)-- The death of Keenan Anderson, the cousin of a Black Lives Matter co-founder, has sparked outcry in the United States and renewed scrutiny of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), which repeatedly Tasered the English teacher before he went into cardiac arrest.

“They’re trying to George Floyd me.  They’re trying to George Floyd me,” Anderson, 31, can be heard saying in police body camera footage, in reference to the police killing of Floyd in 2020 that sparked mass racial justice protests around the world.

In the footage, dated January 3 and released this week, police tell Anderson to “stop resisting” as he lies on the pavement with officers holding him down. One of the officers then says he is going to tase Anderson.  “They’re trying to kill me. They’re trying to kill me,” Anderson cries out as the Taser deploys, pleading with officers and asking them to “help me”. He later died in hospital.

The incident is one of three killings linked to the LAPD in the first days of 2023.  On January 2, police fatally shot 45-year-old Takar Smith as they said he wielded a knife. His wife initially called emergency services because Smith had violated his restraining order and then warned dispatchers Smith had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and was not on his medications.

And on January 3rd – the same day as Anderson’s death – police fired on 35-year-old Oscar Sanchez after the LAPD said he confronted officers with a “makeshift spear.”  

The LAPD released body camera footage from all three altercations on Wednesday, with Chief Michel Moore saying he was “deeply concerned”.  Smith’s death was ruled a homicide by gunshot wounds but investigations are ongoing into Anderson’s and Sanchez’s deaths.

“We are still at the very early stages of this investigation, which can often take up to a year to complete,” police captain Kelly Muniz said in a video statement accompanying the body camera footage.