Shocking footage shows a fleeing Keenan Anderson, a high school teacher whose cousin is Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, beg for his life as cops repeatedly tased him several hours before his death.
When he died, Anderson—who at least one bystander claimed had tried to steal a car—became the third man of color to perish after a violent encounter with the LAPD in the span of a week. The department’s own chief took the unusual step of quickly suggesting at least one of the fatalities could have been avoided.
When the family watched the video prior to its public release, some viewed it in the police station itself. Others watched at home and over Facetime, Cullors told The Daily Beast.
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She described her family’s initial reaction as “devastated” and “disgusted.”
“From his brother Chris just being like ‘How did they do that to him?,’ ‘How did this end up leading to his death,?’ to his sister saying ‘That was too much’ … to his auntie —my cousin— just crying uncontrollably,” Cullors told The Daily Beast.
“Like, It's so traumatic, I can’t unsee that,” she said. “No one deserves to die begging for their life.”
Body-camera footage shows Anderson, 31, repeatedly yell, “They’re trying to George Floyd me!” as cops restrained him in the middle of the street on Jan. 3. One officer held his elbow on Anderson’s neck as he was pinned to the ground. Simultaneously, after police issued a slew of warnings, another officer appeared to tase Anderson for nearly 30 seconds straight.
The disturbing incident unfolded after a car crash in Venice, police said.
Police footage shows cops placing Anderson in handcuffs. A news release from the LAPD says he was then taken into custody and transferred by ambulance to a hospital in Santa Monica, where he was pronounced dead from cardiac arrest about four hours after the use of force.
Anderson was a 10th-grade English teacher at a majority-Black public charter school in Washington, and was in Los Angeles visiting family and friends, the Washington Post reported, citing Cullors.
“He really saw himself as a mentor to young people,” Cullors told The Beast. “He really saw himself as someone to help young people — especially young Black people.”
Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said Wednesday that “it’s unclear” what role Anderson’s struggle with police played in his death. He said Anderson was in an “altered mental state” and claimed that a preliminary blood test showed he had cannabis and cocaine in his system.
Dr. Melina Abdullah, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, said Wednesday that she believes Anderson’s death was the result of police violence, full stop.
“Keenan’s murder is absolutely horrific,” Abdullah said, as the Guardian reported. “LAPD is not calling it a ‘killing,’ but calling it an ‘in-custody death.’ But Keenan was tased to death. We know LAPD caused Keenan’s death.”
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office website indicated Anderson’s cause of death was still under investigation.
Anderson was at least the third person to die after an encounter with police in Los Angeles less than a week into 2023. The others, 45-year-old Takar Smith and 35-year-old Oscar Sanchez, were gunned down by officers.
Cops said Sanchez was killed after police, equipped with shields, responded to an area in South L.A. after receiving 911 calls that a man—later identified as Sanchez—was throwing a knife and metal objects at cars as they drove by on Jan. 3.
Once officers arrived at the scene, they said Sanchez was armed with a “makeshift spear” and metal chain on the second floor of an abandoned residence. Once cops yelled for him to come down, he can be heard on body-cam footage yelling back in Spanish, “You’re not going to rob me, idiot.”
Officers then entered the residence, but it was unclear what, exactly, happened next, as a shield blocked at least one body camera. An officer is heard yelling “put that down” shortly before six gunshots rang out.
Footage shows Sanchez being placed in handcuffs and carried to the base of the stairway, where paramedics rendered aid. Cops said he died later that day in the hospital, and that a utility knife was recovered at the scene.
Smith was killed the day prior, on Jan. 2, after cops responded to a home where his wife called a non-emergency number saying he was “acting crazy,” was off his medication for schizophrenia, was violating a restraining order, and “likely” had a knife, cops said.
Chief Moore expressed doubt about his patrol officers’ decision to proceed in engaging Smith instead of calling the department's Mental Evaluation Unit. That unit pairs officers with county social workers trained in de-escalating standoffs, a sort of police-reform benchmark in the BLM era.
The chief said at a news conference he had “concern” over “the actions of our officers and supervisors not acting on information regarding this individual’s prior mental health issues or current mental health issues.”
Once at the scene, body-camera footage showed officers and Smith arguing for several minutes at the front door to the apartment, with cops insisting he step outside and Smith refusing, despite threats he’d be tased.
The argument escalated once Smith retreated to the apartment kitchen, where body-cam footage shows he grabbed a butcher knife. Smith then puts the knife down and creates a barricade between himself and the officers, after which they tased him, but Smith then picked up the knife again and raised it above his head.
This action appeared to prompt cops to open fire on Smith, killing him.
Chief Moore said Wednesday that he was releasing body-cam footage for each encounter now—as opposed to waiting 45 days, which department policy allows—because of “substantial public interest” in a series of tragedies that “deeply concerned” him.
Anderson taught at Digital Pioneers Academy in southeast Washington, D.C. for roughly six months and was “beloved by all,” the school CEO and founder, Mashea Ashton, said in a statement Wednesday.
Ashton said Anderson was the third member of the school community to be killed in the last 65 days. “We are committed to supporting his family and working together to honor Keenan’s memory,” Ashton wrote.
Los Angeles cops say the incident preceding Anderson’s death began around 3:38 p.m. on Jan. 3, when officers were flagged down after a traffic crash at the intersection of Venice Boulevard and Lincoln Boulevard.
In a statement, cops said a motorcycle officer spotted Anderson “running in the street” and “exhibiting erratic behavior,” and that he pursued after other drivers suggested that Anderson may have caused the crash.
The officer eventually reached Anderson and they began to talk, with Anderson repeatedly suggesting someone was trying to kill him.
Anderson then became visibly agitated with the officer and was claiming that someone was putting stuff into his car. Shortly after, Anderson tried to run away, which sparked the struggle between Anderson and cops that was captured by body cameras in the middle of the street.
Cullors said she grew up going to barbecues and playing baseball in the park with other family members and Anderson.
“ I remember him as a kid — just big eyes and big smiles,” she told The Daily Beast. “Based off of the video … you can see that he was just kind, you know? I think the most painful thing about watching the video was hearing him ask for help.”
Body-camera footage of the incident ends with a subdued Anderson being placed in the back of an ambulance. A Los Angeles police spokesperson told The Daily Beast on Thursday it would not immediately release the names of cops involved in the arrest of Anderson.
As an adult, she said her cousin, was a “really powerful educator, a loving sibling, a father, mentor, and that “he loved his child.”
Cullors said that despite her years of organizing for BLM, she had never had a family member die in police custody. It was a sober reminder, she said, that “in this fight as Black people, we’re not separate from the Black people we are fighting for.”
And despite the BLM movement, and a national reckoning on race and policing following the death of George Floyd, in 2022 the number of people who died at the hands of police rose compared to the previous year, according to the Mapping Police Violence project.
“He was stolen from us,” Cullors told The Daily Beast.
“What will it take? How many killings? How much trauma do Black people need to endure in order for us to transform this place?” she later added.
