{"id":114568,"date":"2025-12-31T04:54:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T04:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/114568\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T04:54:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T04:54:08","slug":"no-charges-for-huntington-park-officers-who-shot-amputee-d-a-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/114568\/","title":{"rendered":"No charges for Huntington Park officers who shot amputee, D.A. says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Citing insufficient evidence, the Los Angeles County district attorney\u2019s office said it would not file charges against two Huntington Park police officers in the 2023 fatal shooting of Anthony Lowe<\/a>, a double amputee who was trying to flee police while holding a long-bladed knife.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors announced the decision Tuesday afternoon, releasing a report that cleared the officers involved of wrongdoing when they opened fire. <\/p>\n

The report said the officers, Paul Munoz and Joshua Volasgis, were forced to make a split-second decision when confronted by Lowe, an armed suspect who had just stabbed someone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat transpired in this incident was a tragic series of events put in motion by Lowe and his dangerous and violent actions,\u201d the D.A.\u2019s report said. \u201cThe fact the officers\u2019 actions were taken against a possibly suicidal person who was experiencing a mental break and suffered physical limitations does little to assuage the emotional response to such a tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an accompanying video<\/a> explanation, Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman called scrutinizing the use of deadly force by police \u201cone of the most challenging, important and sensitive responsibilities our office undertakes,\u201d but said that ultimately he did not believe prosecutors could prove charges against the officers at trial. <\/p>\n

Attorney Christian Contreras, who filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of Lowe\u2019s family<\/a>, said his clients had been holding out hope that the officers would be criminally charged. He noted the D.A.\u2019s decision to drop charges in another controversial policing killing \u2014 the 2023 shooting death of Christopher Deandre Mitchell \u2014 and questioned how serious Hochman is about holding officers accountable.<\/p>\n

Minutes before the January 2023 shooting, prosecutors said that Lowe, 36, lunged from his wheelchair and stabbed a man in the chest in the 1900 block of Slauson Avenue. The victim, who suffered a collapsed lung and two broken ribs, was captured on a surveillance camera staggering away, while Lowe waited at the corner for a few seconds before crossing the street.<\/p>\n

Footage released by Huntington Park police showed three officers \u2014 Munoz, Volasgis and Freddy Ramirez \u2014 arriving on the scene and approaching Lowe as he tried to wheel away. Volasgis holstered his gun and grabbed Lowe\u2019s wheelchair, dumping him onto the ground. As he tumbled to the pavement, a knife he was concealing fell and landed nearby. <\/p>\n

Emails seeking comment from Volasgis and Munoz weren\u2019t immediately answered on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Lowe picked up the knife and began hobbling away on his knees as officers trained their guns at him. The video showed Lowe swinging the knife above his head at one point. Almost simultaneously Ramirez deployed his Taser, while Munoz and Volasgis opened fire with their service weapons.<\/p>\n

After the shooting, according to the D.A.\u2019s report, Volasgis told investigators he feared for his life and that of his police colleagues, drawing on his prior training that a knife can be thrown 10-15 feet away.<\/p>\n

An autopsy found that Lowe was struck by eight of the 11 rounds fired. It also revealed small traces of methamphetamine in his bloodstream.<\/p>\n

None of the officers involved had body cameras, and their police squads weren\u2019t equipped with dashboard cameras. The incident was captured in grainy detail on a security camera from a nearby medical clinic.<\/p>\n

The wrongful death suit filed by Lowe\u2019s family \u2014 one of several legal challenges prompted by the incident \u2014 claimed he was having a mental health crisis and had been coping with the recent amputations of both of his legs. <\/p>\n

Lowe was on parole after serving an 18-year state prison sentence for a series of crimes, including a \u201cgang-related robbery,\u201d the D.A.\u2019s office said. After moving in with an aunt in Texas, Lowe lost his legs following an incident in which he jumped off a freeway overpass while being pursued by law enforcement officers. <\/p>\n

He eventually returned to L.A. to live with his mother; LAPD officers responded to her home at least twice in connection with mental health-related emergencies, the D.A.\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n

Contreras, the Lowe family\u2019s attorney, said the lawsuit over the shooting had been settled but said he was unable to go into details because the agreement hadn\u2019t been finalized.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Huntington police Chief Cosme Lozano said the D.A.\u2019s decision reflected \u201ca thorough and independent evaluation of the facts, evidence, and applicable law.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs with all officer-involved incidents, this matter was subject to an external review process, and we recognize the importance of that process in ensuring accountability and adherence to the rule of law,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n

Volasgis had previously been involved in other controversial use-of-force incidents.<\/p>\n

A former U.S. Marine, he began his career with the LAPD and was one of the officers present at the fatal shooting of Charly \u201cAfrica\u201d Keunang<\/a> in 2015. <\/p>\n

The killing of Keunang, who was homeless, set off days of protests and prompted fierce criticism of how police deal with Skid Row residents struggling with mental illness.<\/p>\n

Volasgis was not one of the officers who fired, but was named in a lawsuit brought by Keunang\u2019s family. The following year, Volasgis resigned from the LAPD. <\/p>\n

LAPD officials recommended his termination after an investigation found he used excessive force when he threw a handcuffed shoplifting suspect out of the backseat of his police squad car, according to an Internal Affairs complaint reviewed by The Times.<\/p>\n

Volasgis was fired in 2017 from the West Covina Police Department after another excessive force allegation when he punched a suspect in the head after responding to a burglary call, according to filings in a racial discrimination lawsuit he later filed against the city.<\/p>\n

The suit alleged that he had been subjected to racial harassment by his colleagues, some of whom mocked him for being Black and addressed him in \u201cslave-era dialect.\u201d<\/p>\n

A message seeking comment on the suit\u2019s outcome was not immediately returned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Citing insufficient evidence, the Los Angeles County district attorney\u2019s office said it would not file charges against two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[61273,10772,45494,1431,8528,61278,61277,4456,61274,48,52,51,61276,47,50,49,346,2322,61275,7214,3729],"class_list":["post-114568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-anthony-lowe","tag-charge","tag-d-a","tag-family","tag-fatal-shooting","tag-freddy-ramirez","tag-huntington-park-officer","tag-incident","tag-joshua-volasgis","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-long-bladed-knife","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-office","tag-officer","tag-paul-munoz","tag-prosecutor","tag-report"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}