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(LOS ANGELES) — There are growing demands for answers over the death of a 31-year-old Washington D.C. teacher hours after he was repeatedly shocked by a Los Angeles Police Department Taser during an arrest that was filmed on a police body camera.

Keenan Anderson, the cousin of Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, died at a hospital on Jan. 3 about four and a half hours after he was shocked, police allege.

Anderson, while visiting L.A., was stopped by an LAPD motorcycle officer when witnesses flagged down the officer about a traffic accident. Initially, Anderson appeared to have been a witness running in the street, but others in the area pointed toward him as causing the accident, police body camera footage showed.

The police allege he tried to steal another vehicle and ran away. Los Angeles Fire Department medics took Anderson to a hospital where police said he later had a “medical emergency” and died.

In an interview with ABC News, Cullors said Anderson was a teacher, father and a beloved family member.

“Nobody deserves to die at the hands of the state period,” she told ABC News. “There’s so many ways to prevent death. We’re supposed to be a society that believes in life, that believes human beings being able to live long, healthy lives. My cousin deserves that.”

The LAPD reported cocaine and marijuana were found in Anderson’s blood, however, the Los Angeles County Coroner has yet to rule on the cause of Anderson’s death.

A coroner’s investigation is underway to determine if it was the Taser, the drugs, or something else that caused him to die close to five hours after the struggle with police.

The LAPD is conducting its own investigation into the use of force and released some of the footage captured by the body camera.

Here is a timeline of what has been revealed about the Jan. 3 encounter, all times are Pacific.

3:35 p.m. – A motorcycle officer was flagged down by witnesses for a traffic collision at Lincoln Blvd and Venice Blvd. He first encounters a man running in the street who initially appeared to be a witness, but was determined to have been Keenan Anderson, who victims of the accident claimed was the suspect.

Anderson was seen on video allegedly behaving erratically and saying things about people being after him. The motorcycle officer puts out a radio call for a traffic collision and reports it’s a possible DUI. Police allege the accident investigation showed Anderson caused the collision, committed felony hit and run by running away from the scene and tried to steal another car after the crash.

3:37 p.m. – The officer orders Anderson to sit on the curb. Anderson says that somebody is trying to kill him and says other things like “I didn’t mean to.” Anderson initially complies with the officer, but then ignores the officer’s orders, keeps talking and moving around. The officer then requests additional units.

The body camera footage advances seven minutes.

3:44 p.m. – Anderson is still talking to the officer and moving around saying he needs water. The officer says he will get him water. Anderson talks about wanting to be seen and then runs away from the officer and out into traffic. The officer asks him to come back, but Anderson runs away.

3:45 p.m. – The officer takes a much more assertive stance as he chases after Anderson on his motorcycle and orders him down on the ground. Other officers see what is unfolding and come to the motorcycle officer’s aid.

3:46 p.m. – A Taser is deployed after a struggle with Anderson and officers following multiple orders for Anderson to comply or be tased. An officer has his elbow on Anderson’s collarbone and neck area. Another officer alerts the first officer about the location of where his elbow is. Anderson then says “He’s trying to George Floyd me,” shortly before the Taser is deployed. The struggle continues.

3:47 p.m. – As the Taser is used things begin to slow. Anderson says “I’m not resisting” and he’s placed into handcuffs as the officer deploys the Taser directly onto the back of Anderson, not using the probes.

3:49 p.m. – In handcuffs and on the ground awaiting medics, Anderson continues yelling, at one point saying, “They think I killed C Lo.”

3:57 p.m. – LAFD medics put Anderson on a stretcher for medical evaluation and he is taken to a hospital. Anderson appears awake and sitting up on the stretcher in the body camera video.

About four and a half hours later, the LAPD alleged Anderson had a “medical emergency” at the hospital and died.

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(DALLAS) — The Dallas Police Department has opened a criminal investigation after finding a second fence cut inside an animal habitat at the Dallas Zoo.

Investigators discovered the second cut fence at a habitat for langur monkeys on Friday, the same day a clouded leopard escaped from its enclosure at the zoo after its fence was intentionally cut.

Despite the cut fence, no langurs escaped their habitat, appeared to be in danger or harmed, Dallas PD said in a press release.

Langurs are part of a large family of primates known as Cercopithecidae and can be found in Africa, India, East and Southeast Asia, according to the Endangered Primate Rescue Center.

Officials said they’re not sure if the two incidents are related but that an investigation is ongoing and a criminal mischief report has been filed.

The Dallas Zoo said that the leopard, named Nova, was located on Friday near her habitat, the same day she went missing.

Officials closed the zoo on Friday because Nova was missing, they said.

“Teams were able to safely secure her just before 5:15 p.m.,” the zoo tweeted Friday, adding that the leopard was undergoing evaluation but appeared uninjured.

Police and zoo officials believe the fence was “intentionally cut,” Dallas Police Sgt. Warren Mitchell told reporters during a press briefing on Friday.

“It was their belief and it is our belief that this was an intentional act. And so we have started a criminal investigation,” Mitchell said.

Clouded leopards are found in southeast Asia and China, and males grow to be about 50 pounds, according to the Smithsonian Institute. Females only reach about 25 to 35 pounds. In the wild, they eat monkeys, small deer and wild boars.

The zoo occupies 106 acres just south of downtown Dallas with over 400 species and 2,000 animals.

ABC News’ Meredith Deliso and Mark Osborne contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Six people were gunned down at a central California home Monday in what the sheriff called a targeted attack.

Among those killed in the “horrific massacre” were a 17-year-old mom and a 6-month-old baby, Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux told reporters. Both were shot in the head, he said.

“We do have survivors,” the sheriff said, adding that it’s not yet clear how they survived.

Authorities believe there are at least two suspects at large, Boudreaux said. No arrests have been made.

“We believe that this was a targeted family,” the sheriff said.

“This was very personal,” Boudreaux said. “We also believe that it was a message being sent.”

Authorities “believe there are gang associations involved in this scene, as well as potential narcotics investigations,” Boudreaux said.

One week ago the sheriff’s office conducted narcotics search warrants at the house, he said.

Some victims were found in the house while others were found in the street, Boudreaux said. One man who was found wounded when deputies arrived was later pronounced dead at a hospital, the sheriff said.

Authorities received reports of shots fired just before 4 a.m., the sheriff said. Callers thought there was an active shooter due to the number of rounds, he said.

“I do have more information but I’m not at liberty to discuss at this point,” he said. “We have potential information, which will hopefully lead to potential suspects.”

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(NEW YORK) — Monday marks the last day of heavy rain for California in the wake of a series of relentless storms that have ravaged the state with flooding.

Parts of Southern California and the Bay Area were hit with more than 6 inches of rain this weekend.

Downtown Los Angeles has seen more rain so far in 2023 than in all of 2022.

About 175 residents were rescued from rising flood waters in San Joaquin County, near San Francisco, on Sunday, according to the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

In Orange County in Southern California, a survivor clinging to a tree was rescued.

Flood watches remain in effect for more than eight million in California on Monday.

Heavy rain will continue for the Bay Area Monday morning and then a band of rain will push south toward Monterey in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, heavy snow is ongoing in the Sierra Nevada mountains. More than 3 feet of snow has been recorded so far and an additional 3 feet is expected over the next 24 hours.

On Monday night, the skies will dry out over much of California. Dry days, and potentially dry weeks, are ahead.

California has been walloped by a near-constant onslaught of rain and snow for weeks.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday urged residents to “be vigilant.”

“I know how fatigued you all are,” he said during a press briefing. “I hope you just maintain a little more vigilance over the course of the next weekend and we’ll get through this.”

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(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — Authorities are investigating the recent death of a man following a confrontation with police officers during a traffic stop in Memphis.

Tyre Nichols, 29, of Memphis, was arrested on the evening of Jan. 7 after officers attempted to make a traffic stop for reckless driving near the area of Raines Road and Ross Road, according to separate press releases from the Memphis Police Department and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. A confrontation unfolded as the officers approached Nichols, who ran away. Another confrontation occurred when the officers pursued Nichols and ultimately apprehended him, police said.

After the incident, Nichols “complained of having a shortness of breath” and was transported by ambulance to Memphis’ St. Francis Hospital in critical condition, according to police.

Due to Nichols’ condition, the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office was contacted and TBI special agents were subsequently requested to conduct a use-of-force investigation, according to the TBI.

The Memphis Police Department said at the time that the “officers involved will be routinely relieved of duty pending the outcome of” the TBI’s investigation.

Nichols “succumbed to his injuries” on Jan. 10, the TBI said. The death of Nichols, who is Black, has sparked protests outside the Memphis police station on Ridgeway Road, with calls to release footage from the officer-worn body cameras.

Five days later, the Memphis Police Department announced that it had “immediately” launched “its own administrative investigation concerning policy violations” amid the TBI’s ongoing probe.

“After reviewing various of information involving this incident, I have found that it is necessary to take immediate an appropriate action,” Memphis Police Chief CJ Davis said in a statement on Sunday. “Today, the department is serving notice to the officers involved of the impending administrative actions.”

The police department’s internal investigation is expected to be completed later this week.

“Make no doubt, we take departmental violations very seriously and, while we must complete the investigation process, it is our top priority to ensure that swift justice is served,” Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said in a statement on Sunday. “We want citizens to know that we are prepared to take immediate and appropriate actions based on what the findings determine.”

Speaking to Memphis television station WREG-TV during a protest on Saturday, Nichols’ stepfather Rodney Wells said his stepson suffered a cardiac arrest and kidney failure because of a beating by officers. He held up a photograph of Nichols in the hospital.

“When we got to the hospital, it was devastating,” Wells told WREG-TV. “All of that still should not occur because of a traffic stop. You shouldn’t be on a dialysis machine looking like this because of a traffic stop. That’s inhumane.”

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(SPRINGFIELD, Ill.) — Two EMS workers in Illinois are facing first-degree murder charges after a patient died in their care last month, according to the Springfield Police Department.

Dan Wright, the Sangamon County State’s Attorney, charged Peggy Finley and Peter Cadigan for the death of an Illinois man on Dec. 18, 2022, according to criminal complaints.

The EMS workers were responding to a call for assistance with a patient “suffering from hallucinations due to alcohol withdrawal,” the Springfield Police Department said in a statement.

Finley can be heard yelling at the man, who identified himself as Earl Moore, to sit up and to “quit acting stupid” in the newly released bodycam video.

Video also shows Finley telling Moore, 35, “We ain’t carrying you” and “I am seriously not in the mood for this dumb [stuff],” using an expletive in his remark, before eventually strapping the patient to a stretcher “in a prone position,” the police department said.

According to a press release from the Springfield police, officers attempted to provide Moore care after the EMS workers “acted indifferently to the patient’s condition.”

A representative for LifeStar Ambulance Service, Inc., which employs Finley and Cadigan, told ABC News “no comment,” regarding the ongoing investigation.

Bodycam footage additionally shows police officers attempting to help Moore out of the house and onto the stretcher.

“The officers took steps to assist the patient, to get him the care he needed, even waiting on the scene to ensure the medical personnel loaded the patient into the ambulance,” Springfield police said in a press release. “The officers, who are not emergency medical professionals, are not trained nor equipped to provide the necessary medical treatment or to transport patients in this type of situation.”

According to the Springfield Police Department, Moore died after he arrived at the hospital.

Teresa Haley, president of the Springfield branch of the NAACP, said at a press conference Tuesday held by Wright, that watching the video made her think about George Floyd, the Black Minneapolis man who was murdered by former police officer Derek Chauvin during a May 2020 arrest.

“They literally threw his hands behind and strapped him down. He couldn’t move if he wanted to and he’s face down,” Haley said. “They did not show any compassion whatsoever to this individual. He should be alive today.”

According to court documents, Finely and Cadigan are being held in the Sangamon County Jail on $1 million bonds.

Finley and Cadigan did not have attorneys listed that ABC News could contact.

ABC News’ Matt Foster contributed to this report.

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(BLOOMINGTON, Ind.) — A 56-year-old white woman was arrested after she allegedly confessed to repeatedly stabbing an Asian Indiana University student in the head in a what police said appeared to be an unprovoked, racially-motivated attack that unfolded in front of passengers on a public bus in Bloomington, Indiana.

The suspect, Billy R. Davis, 56, of Bloomington, was taken into custody after a passenger who witnessed the assault followed her on foot when she fled the Bloomington Transit bus and reported her location to police, authorities said.

Davis, according to a criminal complaint obtained by ABC affiliate station WRTV in Indianapolis, allegedly confessed to stabbing the 18-year-old victim with a folding knife, purportedly telling detectives because it would mean “one less person to blow up our country.”

Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton condemned the attack, saying in a statement, “We stand with the Asian community and all who feel threatened by this event.”

“Following the brutal attack of a member of our community, I want to state categorically that here in the city of Bloomington we deplore any form of racism and discrimination, especially hate based violence. This behavior is not acceptable and will be dealt with accordingly,” Hamilton said. “Bloomington is a relatively safe place, but we are not immune to issues with which our entire nation is dealing. This senseless incident is a reminder that we should all look out for each other, be aware of our surroundings and seek to combat racism and prejudice in all its forms wherever and whenever we encounter it.”

The attack unfolded aboard the bus around 4:45 p.m. Wednesday, the Bloomington Police Department said in a statement.

The victim, whose name was not released, told investigators she was attacked without warning when she stood up to exit the bus on Fourth Street in downtown Bloomington, several blocks from the Indiana University campus.

“She said that as she was standing and waiting for the bus doors to open, another passenger on the bus began to strike her repeatedly in the head, which resulted in immediate pain,” police said in a statement.

Police officers called to the scene found the victim bleeding from her head and immediately called an ambulance, which took the victim to an area hospital for treatment.

“Once the victim’s wounds had been cleaned at the hospital, it was determined that the victim had multiple stab wounds to her head,” according to the police statement.

The knife attack was captured on the bus’ onboard surveillance camera, police said.

“The footage showed that the suspect and victim had no interactions prior to the suspect stabbing the victim multiple times in the head as the victim waited for the bus doors to open,” the police statement said.

Davis was initially booked at the Monroe County Jail and on a felony battery charge. The charge was later amended to attempted murder after Davis allegedly confessed to investigators, police said.

“This week, Bloomington was sadly reminded that anti-Asian hate is real and can have painful impacts on individuals and our community,” James Wimbush, vice president of diversity, equity and multicultural affairs at Indiana University, said in a statement. “No one should face harassment or violence due to their background, ethnicity or heritage. Instead, the Bloomington and IU communities are stronger because of the vast diversity of identities and perspectives that make up our campus and community culture.”

The Indiana University Asian Culture Center also released a statement, urging students to speak up “and share your feelings of fear and rage.”

“We are outraged and heartbroken by this unprovoked act of violence, but we also worry for the well-being of our community,” the culture center said in its statement. “We should not be fearing for our lives on public transportation. Taking the bus should not feel dangerous.”

Anti-Asian hate crimes have skyrocketed since the start of the pandemic in 2020, according to a report from the group Stop AAPI Hate. The report showed that 11,467 hate incidents targeting Asians and Pacific Islanders were reported to the organization between March 2020 when the pandemic began and March 2022.

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(NEW YORK) — Flood watches are in effect for more than 26 million people in California, which has already been ravaged by a series of catastrophic storms.

Two Pacific storm systems are forecast to bring precipitation to most of the state through the weekend. The widespread deluge is leading to flooding concerns in many spots that have already been inundated recently.

The systems are expected to bring “heavy lower elevation rain, significant mountain snow, and strong winds,” the National Weather Service said in a bulletin Saturday.

Among the impacts so far, the Sacramento County Office of Emergency Services issued an evacuation warning Saturday afternoon for several areas amid a flood threat. Placer County authorities also reported roads closed Saturday due to falling boulders and erosion from the runoff the area has received.

The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services tweeted Sunday that its Swift Water & Flood Team rescued about 800 San Joaquin County residents affected by flood waters.

The first system is expected to bring heavy rain across California as it moves inland Saturday evening. Rainfall of 2 to 3 inches is possible along the coast, which could lead to “localized instances of urban and small stream flooding as well as mudslides,” the National Weather Service warned.

Lighter rainfall is possible on Sunday “with another ramp-up late Sunday into early Monday ahead of a second system,” the agency said.

Wind advisories are also in effect along portions of the coast and Central Valley for sustained winds upwards of 20-30 mph and gusts of 50 mph.

Snow will also continue to fall in the Sierra Nevada Mountains throughout the weekend, with 3 to 6 feet forecast through Monday.

The UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab reported more than 21 inches of snow in the last 24 hours as of midday Saturday, with the snowpack approximately 10 feet deep. Another 2 to 3 feet of snow is expected to fall by Monday morning, it said.

California has been walloped by a near-constant onslaught of rain and snow. At least 17 people died during a severe storm system earlier this week, state officials said.

The National Weather Service had warned of a “relentless parade of atmospheric rivers” on the West Coast over the coming week.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom urged residents to “be vigilant” as more dangerous conditions were forecast for this weekend.

“I know how fatigued you all are,” he said during a press briefing on Friday. “I hope you just maintain a little more vigilance over the course of the next weekend and we’ll get through this.”

The storms are expected to impact the state until Jan. 18, according to the governor.

ABC News’ Daniel Amarante contributed to this report.

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(BOSTON) — Nearly 60 years after Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. addressed thousands on the Boston Common, city officials unveiled a sculpture commemorating the civil rights leader and his wife, Coretta Scott King.

The bronze sculpture, which is 20 feet tall and 26 feet wide, is the largest monument in the U.S. dedicated to racial equity and is located in the town where the couple first met. King was studying as a doctoral student in theology at Boston University when he met Coretta, who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music.

“Boston became the place where they forged a partnership that would change America and make a powerful contribution to the Black freedom struggle. That’s what I see in this beautiful monument,” said Martin Luther King III, son of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., during the unveiling.

This $10 million sculpture, which took five years to create, celebrates their life together and compliments the 30-foot King memorial at The National Mall.

The Boston piece depicts the arms, shoulders and hands of the two hugging after King won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 — a moment special to Black conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas, creator of “The Embrace.”

“That was really the culmination of over a decade of incredibly hard work that not only Dr. King did, but also Mrs. King,” Thomas said in an interview with Good Morning America.

“In that embrace, I see so much. I see teamwork, I see joy,” Thomas said, adding, “I see both of their strengths, but especially hers. I see the way that she is really holding him up in this picture and actually recognizing that that is a symbol for a lot of what she did for him, for the family, but also for the country.”

Thomas is experienced when it comes to public art and has practiced the expression for nearly 20 years, finding passion in not just sculpting but in photography, video and printmaking based on elements of history.

“This is a work that’s going to be in Boston Common, which has been around for 400 years. So possibly it’s going to be in Boston Common for another 400 years,” Thomas said. “Rather than it being a monument to a hero of a war or victims of a war — It’s actually a monument to two heroes of nonviolence and so I’m really excited to see a new gesture and a new way of celebrating people.”

The sculpture was unveiled by Embrace Boston, a nonprofit with a mission to dismantle structural racism through the intersection of culture and community. The event featured statements from Martin Luther King III, his wife, Andrea Waters King, and their daughter, Yolanda Renee King, the only granddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King.

“There is a sense in which we are all children and grandchildren of Martin and Coretta Scott King,” Yolanda, 14, said during the celebration.

“We are all challenged to carry for their unfinished work. This is the spirit we must keep as we commemorate the 37th Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday.”

The sculpture has been place near where King led 20,000 people in the civil rights era protest of the segregation of schools. It’s attracted many since its unveiling.

“The work of the Kings was so monumental in the United States because it signified a shift in the way that we as a society could address social challenges and so while there were millions of people who were part of this effort,” Thomas said.

He added, “For everyone, that was something that shifted everything. That’s the reason you and I are here. The reason that any of us are here and have the opportunities we have today, no matter what our ethnicity is, is really a result of that work.”

ABC News’ Abby Cruz and Nicholas Massenburg-Abraham contributed to this report.

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(SELMA, Ala.) — Amanda McCloud was working in a Selma, Alabama, day care changing a toddler’s diapers when she heard the tornado sirens begin to wail.

“Most of the time, nothing ever happened,” she told ABC News about the tornado sirens she’s grown used to hearing, but she said it was different last Thursday.

There have been at least nine deaths as a result of a tornado that struck the South last week, according to authorities.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey declared a state of emergency on Thursday for Autauga, Chambers, Coosa, Dallas, Elmore and Tallapoosa counties, tweeting that those counties “were in the path of Mother Nature’s wrath.”

McCloud was working at the Crosspoint Christian Church’s child care and preschool in Selma, entrusted with caring for about six children that ranged in age from 7 weeks to 4 months old. Sixty children attended the preschool and nursery, with students as old as 4 years old, she said.

McCloud said she and her coworker tried to move the toddlers to a safer location within the day care once the sirens began, searching for a windowless room to shelter in place. She found all four bathrooms filled with children and staff, so McCloud said she decided to shelter with the children in her supervisor’s office.

With the power out, McCloud said she leaned over to protect a 7-week-old infant just as the worst of the storm set in.

“And then the roof just fell, like tiles and the ceiling tiles, you know, everything on top of us,” she said. “So, like it was pouring down rain on the kids.”

McCloud said she began yelling for help as the roof collapsed and exposed the children to the wind and rain.

“I was just like, ‘our roof is off, our roof is off.’ I was just screaming for help because I was hoping the bathroom people would come help us, you know, get the kids out,” she said. “But they were all probably screaming too.”

Once the fear subsided, she said she needed to get the children to another place to shelter.

“It was just pouring down rain…,” she said. “And I was like, ‘oh my god, yeah, we gotta get out of here.'”

As she tried to move the kids to a safer location, McCloud said she was surprised to find a 4-month-old child unscathed under the rubble.

“She was up under all of the ceiling tiles. And she just had a little [pacifier] in her mouth, not crying or anything,” McCloud said.

McCloud said she then tried to move the children to a bathroom, but they made a startling discovery. There was a smell of gas in the crowded bathroom where other children were hiding.

“People were coming just saying, ‘we smell gas, we smell gas!'” she said. “And I was like, ‘Yeah, me too,’ because we gotta get out of the building.”

The roughly 60 children and staff of the day care then moved to a neighboring church, where parents picked up their children.

McCloud said other than some minor injuries, the children were unscathed, which she attributed to the attentiveness and maturity of the children.

“My kids really listened really good that day. It wasn’t hard moving them. They really did great,” she said.

Throughout the incident, McCloud said she worried about her daughter, a 15-year-old at a nearby high school.

“I really wanted to run down there and check on her,” she said. “But you know, I couldn’t leave my kids.”

McCloud has a simple response when asked how she handled the stress of the storm and the pressure of being responsible for other people’s children.

“I didn’t think about … what to do,” she said. “I just did it.”

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