Jamal Shakir Jr. joined a George Floyd protest a year ago this month in downtown L.A. and urged some of the cops on the scene to participate in the demonstration.
According to Jamal’s lawyer, Carl Douglas, Jamal came face-to-face with officer Eric Anderson, but the cop was in no mood to engage Jamal. Instead, according to Douglas, Anderson told another cop to fire some sort of non-lethal weapon — presumably loaded with rubber bullets — at the filmmaker. According to Douglas, Anderson ordered that 2 shots be fired, striking Jamal in the hand and the butt and damaging ligaments.
The shocking part of the story — Anderson is Jamal’s uncle.
Jamal has not recovered from his injuries and is still receiving treatment a year later.
Jamal is now suing both his uncle and the City of L.A. for civil rights violations, assault and battery, false imprisonment and negligence. The lawsuit offers a blistering account of the incident, alleging Anderson “turned his trained wrath against a member of his own family, leaving a promising young entrepreneur, his own blood, scarred and reeling in the wake of his malicious attack.”
Jamal claims his uncle “maliciously punished his own blood for merely calling him out against others protesting the tragic death of an unarmed Black man” during a peaceful protest.
