Cops dump amputee from wheelchair and shoot him 11 times, killing him, CA suit says

A jury will decide whether police used unreasonable force when they opened fire on a 36-year-old man within “a matter of seconds,” fatally shooting him outside a medical clinic in 2023, a judge in Los Angeles County, California, has ruled, allowing for a civil trial.

Anthony Lowe was having a mental health crisis and had been coping with the recent amputations of both of his legs when he was shot 11 times by Huntington Park police officers on Jan. 26, 2023, according to the case brought by Lowe’s family over his death.

Officers Paul Munoz and Joshua Volasgis encountered Lowe while responding to a reported stabbing, as detailed in the March 21 ruling issued by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Virginia Keeny.

Lowe was in his wheelchair and fit the appearance of a suspect described by a 911 caller, who said they were stabbed, Keeny wrote in the ruling provided to McClatchy News.

As Munoz and Volasgis approached Lowe, he “moved away,” according to the lawsuit.

That’s when one officer grabbed Lowe’s wheelchair and dumped him onto the ground, the lawsuit says.

Then a knife fell and landed nearby, Keeny wrote in the ruling, citing undisputed facts.

Lowe retrieved the knife and “moved away from the officers,” according to the ruling, which says Munoz deployed his taser in response. It’s unclear if the taser struck Lowe.

Another officer arrived, unholstered his taser and joined Munoz and Volasgis in ordering Lowe to drop the knife, the ruling says.

Then the officers took aim at Lowe with their firearms and the taser, according to the ruling, which says bullets struck Lowe, killing him.

In December, Munoz, Volasgis and the City of Huntington Park sought to have the lawsuit dismissed in a motion for summary judgment, defending the use of deadly force.

But Lowe’s family has raised triable issues with their lawsuit, including whether the officers were unreasonable and reckless during the encounter, instead of attempting “nonlethal tactics” first, Keeny ruled.

“The evidence — Defendants’ and Plaintiffs’ — at least raises a triable issue whether the (officers) acted unreasonably before and as the incident began,” Keeny wrote. “The video reflects that officers shot Lowe within seconds of arriving on the scene of the incident, and it shows no measured attempt at de-escalation.”

Now, the case is scheduled to go to trial on Jan. 12, 2026, court records show.

The police department and attorneys representing the defendants didn’t return McClatchy News’ requests for comment on March 26.

In a statement shared with McClatchy News on March 27, the City of Huntington Park said it will defer comment on the civil case, due to the pending litigation, but will provide updates “as appropriate.”

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office opened an investigation into the shooting, the Los Angeles Times reported a few days after Lowe’s death.

At a Jan. 30, 2023, news conference held at the Huntington Park Police Department, Lowe’s mother, Dorothy Lowe, said her “son was murdered,” according to the Los Angeles Times. She was joined by her daughter, Anthony Lowe’s sister, and grandchildren, his teenage son and daughter.

In response to McClatchy News’ inquiry on the investigation into the shooting, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement that “the matter is under review and we cannot provide further comment.”

The officers involved were put on administrative leave, the Huntington Park Police Department told NBC News, according to an article from February 2023. The department didn’t identify the officers at the time, the outlet reported.

Now, Lowe’s family is “looking forward to the trial,” their legal counsel said in a March 25 news release.

“Anthony did not have to be shot dead on the street,” attorney Eric Dubin, a member of the family’s legal team, said in a statement.

Munoz and Volasgis are no longer on leave and “have returned to full duty,” according to Huntington Park’s March 27 statement.

“We have full confidence in the legal system to handle this matter fairly and impartially,” city Mayor Arturo Flores said. “It is in everyone’s best interest to allow the judicial process to proceed without any speculation.”

Lowe was ‘trying to escape,’ witness testifies

In testifying that he witnessed Lowe being “knocked” from his wheelchair on Jan. 26, 2023, a man said he saw a knife in Lowe’s hand, but insisted he wasn’t acting threatening, according to the ruling.

The bystander’s testimony is corroborated by a Huntington Park officer, who was Munoz and Volasgis’ supervisor at the time, the ruling says.

After reviewing video footage, the officer testified in a deposition that he didn’t think Lowe posed an “imminent” physical threat, according to the ruling.

The officer said that in his opinion, “the video did not necessarily reflect best police practices,” Keeny wrote.

The bystander “also testified that during the incident Lowe was simply “(s)cared, trying to escape,” Keeny noted.

“The Court agrees with Plaintiffs that the video footage does not demonstrate objectively reasonable police conduct as a matter of law,” Keeny ruled.

“The video does not clearly show Lowe threatened the Officers with a knife.”

Lowe was living with his mother in California after having his legs amputated while residing in Texas when he died, his family’s legal counsel said in their release.

The amputations caused Lowe emotional hardship, his family said, according to the legal counsel.

He was supposed to receive prosthetics in February 2023, the month after his death, his legal counsel said.

Lowe’s estate and his family first brought legal action over his death in May 2023, the judge’s ruling notes. Then, a similar action was filed against the same parties on behalf of Lowe’s daughter in March 2024.

Both lawsuits were consolidated into one case, the ruling says.

With the case headed to trial, Keeny wrote the court must consider the family’s position that “when the officers first approached Lowe he did not appear to be armed, and that the officers began the encounter by dumping Lowe from his wheelchair onto the ground.”

Civil rights attorney V. James DeSimone, a member of the legal team representing the case, said in a statement that “it is an outrageous and unreasonable use of force to dump an amputee out of his wheelchair without provocation.“

“And the officers’ use of deadly force is equally outrageous.”

This story was originally published March 27, 2025 at 7:58 AM with the headline "Cops dump amputee from wheelchair and shoot him 11 times, killing him, CA suit says."

Julia Marnin

McClatchy DC

Julia Marnin covers courts for McClatchy News, writing about criminal and civil affairs, including cases involving policing, corrections, civil liberties, fraud, and abuses of power. As a reporter on McClatchy’s National Real-Time Team, she’s also covered the COVID-19 pandemic and a variety of other topics since joining in 2021, following a fellowship with Newsweek. Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, she was raised in South Jersey and is now based in New York State.