Cellphone video recorded by a bystander April 6 shows police taking a 35-year-old man into custody after he jumped off the Interstate 295 overpass onto Malcolm X Avenue.
Anthony Louis is seen on the ground, bleeding as officers issue commands. An officer appears to have a stun gun in his right hand.
Alexandria police say a U.S. Park Police officer used a stun gun to subdue Louis. He later died.
Though hard to watch, the video provides more details to Louis’ family
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“My brother is alive,” Louis’ sister Margaret Middleton observed. “He’s conscious, he’s moving, he’s hurt because you can see the blood on the ground coming from his head, but he’s moving.”
Louis’ sister says officers should have done more to help her injured brother.
“The first thing they should have done was care about his well-being,” Middleton said. “He’s a human being; he is not an animal … Instead of dragging and being aggressive with him, make sure he was alright.”
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The video captures only a portion of Louis’ encounter with police.
The incident began in the 800 block of North Patrick Street in Alexandria.
Police were responding to gunfire when officers spotted Louis and three other men driving away from the scene.
Louis’ family says he was at a cookout nearby and left when he heard the gunshots.
“He didn’t know what was going on, so he fled,” said Louis’ mother, Margie Toney.
Police pursued Louis’ vehicle into D.C., where it crashed on I-295. Police say he jumped the jersey barrier and landed on Malcolm X Avenue.
The video ends before a D.C. Fire and EMS ambulance arrived to take Louis to the hospital.
Police said he was conscious and breathing when it arrived, but he lost consciousness on the way to the hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
The family says they’re grateful someone stopped to record anything at all.
“That was just a beginning for us to get justice for us to see what happened to him,” Middleton said. “Justice and answers, that’s what we are looking for.”
Louis’ family said they’ve seen at least one other video taken by a bystander showing the much larger police response on Malcolm X Avenue before Louis is put into the ambulance. A cause of death has not yet been released.
Multiple Alexandria and U.S. Park Police officers are on administrative leave during the investigation.
