‘He Tried to Attack Us with a Knife’: Kansas Police Caught Lying After Bodycam Footage Shows Officers Shot Black Man 34 Times—Holding Only a Wrench
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For more than two years, Kansas prosecutors claimed that Topeka police shot and killed a Black man named Taylor Lowery because he came charging at them with a knife, making them fear for their lives.
But that was proven to be a lie after body camera footage of the shooting was released to his family last week.
The footage shows Lowery was only holding a wrench and was backing away from officers when they opened fire, shooting him 34 times on Oct. 13, 2022, leaving him with 41 bullet wounds because some of the bullets left multiple injuries.
It was only after the 33-year-old man lay dying in front of a gas station that they realized he was holding a wrench, not a knife – which was lying only inches away from the cops as they opened fire.
Nevertheless, a Topeka police officer lied to Lowery’s sister when she showed up at the scene, distraught and crying over the shooting death of her brother.
“He tried to attack us with that knife,” the cop told her.
And Topeka police and city attorneys maintained that false narrative for more than two years, along with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and the Shawnee County District Attorney’s Office, refusing to release the body camera footage under the guise that “it is not in the public’s interest” to view the video.
It was not until a federal magistrate judge ordered the release of the footage in December as part of a wrongful death lawsuit filed in August that the family was able to release the videos to the media, exposing the lies that the government had dished out for more than two years.
“They gave repeated commands to drop the knife,” said Melissa Underwood after the shooting in a statement to the media she is a spokesperson for the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the state agency that investigates officer-involved shootings.
“Lowery then advanced toward officers holding the knife. During the incident, five officers from TPD fired, striking Lowery multiple times.”
That false narrative was maintained by Shawnee County District Attorney Michael F. Kagay, who cleared the cops of wrongdoing and released a 15-page report with redactions explaining his decision, claiming Lowery took a “fighting stance” against the cops.
Kagay also wrote in his report that an autopsy revealed that Lowery had been under the influence of methamphetamine, amphetamine and cocaine.
“They got out of their vehicle, identified themselves as police and began yelling commands to Lowery,” the district attorney’s report states.
“Lowery turned towards Sgt. (name redacted), raised the knife above his head, and began charging. Both Det. (Redacted) and Sgt. (redacted) had their duty weapons out and began firing at Lowery.”
Topeka City Attorney Amanda Stanley also went along with the lie, refusing to release the videos to local media because she claimed it would “not be in the public’s interest,” according to the Topeka Capital-Journal.
And now that the lies have been exposed, attorneys for the police officers have filed a motion against one of the attorneys representing the Lowery family, a Black woman named LaRonna Lassiter Saunders, for releasing the body camera videos to the family, despite the judge’s order.
The attorneys, Jeffrey Kuhlman and Nicholas Jefferson are demanding that Saunders “be publicly admonished and face other repercussions,” according to the Kansas Reflector.
The Reflector states Judge Mitchell’s order to release the footage also “blocked public release of personally identifiable information of certain witnesses and segments of video containing images of minors.”
“Third parties have obviously reviewed confidential portions of the footage that was subject to the protective order,” the motion states, according to the Reflector.
Watch the video below, which does not include those confidential portions:
The Truth Comes Out
It was not until Dec. 13 that Federal Magistrate Judge Angel D. Mitchell ordered the release of the footage as part of discovery in the pending lawsuit against the Topeka Police Department.
Da’Mabrius Duncan, the mother of Lowery’s child and administrator of his estate who filed the lawsuit, said the shooting and the ensuing cover-up have left her distrustful of police.
“Why didn’t they handle the situation better than they did?” she said in an interview with Kansas Reflector.
“Just why? Why do they lie? Why did they use my child’s father as a target practice? Why should I have my trust in you guys when you guys can’t even tell the truth?”
“There’s been situations where we needed to call the police, but, you know, I just don’t trust them,” she said. “I don’t see them the same. I don’t feel that I’m protected.”
The lawsuit has since been amended with the names of the officers, including Malcolm Gillum, Justin Good, Bradley Netherton, and Sgt. Scott McEntire and Detective Alex Wall.
“Lowery was not facing Officer Gillum or Officer Netherton, did not pose a threat to the Officer Defendants and did not take any aggressive actions toward Officers prior to discharging their service weapons,” the claim states.
“Upon information and belief, the only physical contact made with Taylor Lowery was when Sergeant McEntire intentionally bumped Taylor when Taylor was unarmed.”
“Contrary to reports from and/or statements by the City of Topeka, upon information and belief, Lowery did not raise a knife above his head and charge the Officer Defendants at the time Officers began discharging their service weapons shooting Lowery.”
McEntire and Wall, the first two cops to arrive on the scene who were not wearing body cameras, claimed Lowery was trying to carjack a person in front of the gas station, but that is not evident in any of the footage.
The Call to Dispatch
Lowery’s sister, who shared a home with her brother, had called police for help, telling the dispatcher her brother had “taken a substance and was not acting normal,” according to the lawsuit filed by the Denning Law Firm.
“During the phone conversation with the 911 dispatcher, the woman indicated multiple times that she did not want the officers to hurt her brother but that she wanted him out of her house.”
When the dispatcher asked if her brother was armed, his sister said at first was reluctant to answer because “she did not want the officers to shoot him.”
“The 911 dispatcher indicated that would not happen, and the woman stated that her brother was using a knife to try to pick a lock to acquire her car keys.”
“Upon information and belief, the woman never indicated that her brother was being violent or threatening anyone with the knife.”
When police arrived at the home, they encountered Lowery holding the knife and wrench, who ran out the back door and hopped into a black SUV to make his escape.
The existing body camera footage comes from three officers who arrived at the gas station after the two initial officers, who were not wearing body cameras, had chased him from his home. At that point, Lowery had already dropped both the knife and wrench but bent over to pick up the wrench as one of the officers shoved him.
Lowery began to step backward with the wrench in his hands when the officers opened fire, killing him. The videos show the knife lying on the ground near the officers, out of Lowery’s reach.
One of the officers picks the knife up as one of the other officers points out that Lowery was holding “a socket wrench.”
“Deadly force is reasonable only if the officer had probable cause to believe that the suspect posed a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others,” the claim states.
“There was not probable cause to believe that Taylor Lowery posed a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officers or others.”
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