A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed against the city of Los Angeles in the January death of 31-year-old Keenan Anderson following a confrontation with police in Venice.
Officers deployed a stun gun several times during the encounter with Anderson, who later died at a hospital.
Civil rights attorneys Carl Douglas and Ben Crump announced the lawsuit at a Monday news conference with Anderson's relatives. The claim for damages, a precursor to a lawsuit, was filed in January but denied, leading to the filing of the $100 million lawsuit against the city.
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The Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges civil rights violations, assault and battery, false imprisonment and negligence.
Part of the encounter in January was captured on LAPD body-worn camera video. It showed Anderson flagging down a LAPD officer for help after a car crash in Venice. The LAPD said Anderson had tried to take another person's car and had caused the collision.
An officer spoke with Anderson for several minutes near the scene of the crash, police said. Anderson attempted to leave the scene as more officers arrived, the LAPD said.
"As officers contacted Anderson, he began to resist, resulting in a use of force," the LAPD said in a post that included video of the encounter. "Officers struggled with Anderson for several minutes, utilizing a TASER, bodyweight, firm grips, and joint locks to overcome his resistance."
Police used a stun gun multiple times during the struggle. Anderson died Jan. 3 at a hospital hours after his arrest.
The LA County coroner said Anderson's death as the result of heart failure and cocaine use. The coroner said the manner of Anderson's death was undetermined, as pathologists said they could not determine how much the force used by police played a role in his death.
"I don't think there's going to be a challenge to the determination that there were in fact drugs in Mr. Anderson's system," Douglas said during the Monday morning news conference. "The video shows he died because he was Tasered more than six times on the back of his heart. We will have experts that will confirm the connection between the actions of police and his death.
"It matters not why he was in distress because it's clear from the body-worn footage that he was never a threat. He spoke to the officers politely. He was always compliant. He never balled his fists. He never kicked. He never did anything to give an officer the belief that he was a threat."
Anderson was a teacher at a school in Washington D.C. and father to a 5-year-old boy. He was in Los Angeles visiting relatives during the holidays.
“He also deserves to be hugging his son, but instead his son is left fatherless because of a chance encounter with LAPD taking Keenan's life,” Anderson's sister Dominique Anderson said in January. “And our family is left to pick up those pieces. Keenan was not a threat to any of those officers on that day.”
Anderson was a cousin of Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement.
NBCLA reached out to the LAPD, which said the department does not comment on pending litigation.
