Sandy MaloneLos Angeles, CA – The medical examiner announced on Friday that the cousin of Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, who suffered a fatal heart attack as he was being arrested by Los Angeles police. died from an enlarged heart and cocaine use.
A statement about the autopsy report was released on June 2, KTLA reported.
“The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner determined the cause of death for 31-year-old Keenan Darnell Anderson as effects of cardiomyopathy (enlarged heart) and cocaine use (death determined hours after restraint and conducted energy device [CED] use); the manner of death is undetermined,” the statement read.
Anderson’s family has filed a $50 million lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department, NBC News reported.
The incident occurred just after 3:30 p.m. on Jan. 3 after motorists at the scene of a multi-vehicle crash flagged down an LAPD motorcycle officer from the West Traffic Division at the intersection of Venice and Lincoln Boulevards in Pacific Area, according to a press release from the police department.
Several of the people involved in the wreck pointed the officer to Anderson, who was running around in the middle of the street and behaving erratically, as the person responsible for the crash.
Bodycam video showed the officer approached Anderson and told him to get out of the roadway.
“Somebody’s trying to kill me, sir,” Anderson replied and then walked to the sidewalk holding his hands behind his back as if he were handcuffed, the video showed.
The officer followed him to the sidewalk on his motorcycle and Anderson put his hands in the air.
“Hey, stop right there,” the officer ordered Anderson in the video. “Get up against the wall.”
“I didn’t mean to,” Anderson replied.
“Get up against the wall,” the officer calmly told him again.
“Please I didn’t mean to,” Anderson said again.
“Get up against the wall,” the officer said as he dismounted from his motorcycle.
Instead of going to the wall, Anderson got to his knees in the middle of the sidewalk and put his hands behind his head.
Bodycam video showed the officer called for backup as Anderson continued to get more agitated from his kneeling position on the sidewalk and advised the dispatcher that he might be dealing with a DUI.
Then the officer began asking Anderson questions and the driver gave him nonsensical answers, the bodycam showed.
“The car-“ Anderson said, gesturing in the direction of the crash scene.
“Okay, what happened?” the officer asked.
“I lost my key,” Anderson replied.
“You lost your key,” the officer repeated in the video.
“Yes. I came and I had somebody fix my car for me, sir,” he explained.
Then suddenly Anderson started begging the officer “Please don’t, please sir” although the video showed the officer hadn’t moved from his original position.
“Okay do me a favor, sit Indian… Hey!” the officer said as Anderson started to get to his feet.
“Sit down on your butt and sit with your legs crossed,” the officer instructed him calmly in the video. “Sit with your legs crossed.”
Bodycam showed that Anderson followed the officer’s instructions and sat on the sidewalk.
“They’re trying to kill me, please,” he told the officer.
“Who’s trying to kill you?” the officer asked in the video.
Anderson pointed vaguely in the direction of the crash scene and tried to explain.
“I had a stunt today,” he said.
“Okay, what car were you driving?” the officer asked.
“The BMW,” the suspect replied.
Then he told the officer that someone was trying to “put stuff in my car.”
“Who’s trying to put stuff in your car?” the officer asked.
“They’re going to try to,” Anderson replied.
“Please,” he said and then popped up from the sidewalk to a standing position with his hands in the air.
“Stay down for me,” the officer told him. “Hey, hey, stay here!”
The officer told Anderson to “stay here” repeatedly and the agitated suspect told him that he needed to go get some water.
“Stay here. I’ll get you some water here in a second. Okay?” the officer told him.
The officer instructed Anderson to have a seat against the wall, but the man ran across the sidewalk closer to the road and told the officer that he wanted people to be able to see him.
“Sir, okay, you can sit right there then,” the officer told the agitated man. “If you want to be seen, sit right there.”
Bystanders who were watching from down the sidewalk called out to Anderson and told him they could see him.
“We’re all watching you, okay?” a woman called out in the video.
“You’re putting a thing on me,” Anderson told the officer as he walked toward the intersection.
“Sit down. I’m not putting anything,” the officer told him and requested again that he sit and told him he didn’t want him in the road.
Bodycam showed that Anderson ignored the officer’s repeated requests to sit down and instead walked into the intersection of two busy streets.
Then he walked between cars that were stopped at the intersection with the officer following him, the video showed.
The officer repeatedly ordered Anderson to stop and lie down on his stomach but the suspect ignored him and sat down on his butt with his hands in the air on the street in between two stopped cars.
More officers arrived on the scene and attempted to take Anderson into custody, the video showed.
Anderson continued to beg the officers not to arrest him as he resisted and struggled against their attempts to put him in handcuffs.
“Please, help me please!” Anderson screamed. “Help me please!”
“Let my hand go,” one of the officers ordered him in the video.
“No please help me. They’re trying to kill me,” the suspect replied as he continued to resist.
The video showed Anderson continued to violently resist arrest as at least three officers struggled to take him into custody.
“Keenan, relax!” one of the officers ordered.
But Anderson continued fighting and screaming that they were trying to kill him, the video showed.
“Stop or we’ll Tase you,” an officer warned.
The officer warned Anderson multiple more times that he needed to stop resisting or he would be Tased, the video showed.
“Turn over, or I’m a Tase you,” the officer told him repeatedly.
Anderson continued to fight the officer who was trying to control his left arm and tried to roll away from the officers, the video showed.
“They’re trying to George Floyd me,” he said in the video. “They’re trying to George Floyd me.”
Anderson continued to resist and an officer delivered several more warnings that he would be Tased if he didn’t stop resisting.
Then bodycam video showed that was when the officer deployed a Taser on the resisting suspect.
Initially, the Taser did not appear to have any effect on Anderson, who continued to yell “They’re trying to kill me.”
The video showed the officer held the Taser to Anderson’s back and deployed it again.
“Stop it,” the officer told the suspect multiple times. “Don’t resist. Stop resisting.”
The video showed the officer deployed the Taser against Anderson’s back multiple times.
One of the Taser deployments appeared to last for 30 consecutive seconds, according to The Washington Post.
Officers were eventually able to get the suspect into handcuffs and hobbled at the ankles.
LAPD said that while Anderson was at the hospital, he suffered a heart attack.
He was pronounced dead at the medical facility after suffering the cardiac arrest there, The Washington Post reported.
Holly Matkin
