This week, Jamal Shakir Jr. filed a complaint against his uncle, a Los Angeles Police Department officer, who he claims ordered another officer to shoot him.
Last year, the 23-year-old filmmaker took part in the George Floyd protests that took place all over downtown Los Angeles last summer and at one point allegedly urged some of the officers at the scene to take part in the demonstrations.
TMZ reports, “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 two shots be fired, striking Jamal in the hand and the butt and damaging ligaments.”
Police brutality is always cause for alarm but what makes this story particularly scandalous is the fact that Douglas is his uncle.
Shakir maintains that he still hasn’t recovered from his injuries almost a year since the incident and continues to receive treatment.
Video from Shakir’s live stream shows him screaming in pain and dropping his phone. It then reveals that his hand was bloodied after he was hit.
“My own uncle … told him to shoot me!” he can be heard exclaiming on the stream as he was running away.
Shakir’s live video also captured his distraught pleas to his uncle, inquiring why he was on the wrong side of history.
“Our ancestors are turning over in their grave right now, Eric!” he said in the footage, adding, “Look, look, he’s telling him who to shoot.”
“Look me in my eyes!” he continued shouting. “You know how your daddy is feeling right now. That could’ve been you!”
It is around that exact moment point that another officer appeared to shoot Shakir with a projectile.
READ MORE: 3 NYPD officers charged with corruption; 1 regularly used Black slurs
The young man’s lawsuit is one of many legal claims against the city of Los Angeles alleging the use of force and violence against peaceful demonstrators. Several reports and audits have been conducted that substantiate these claims of excessive force and policy violations by LAPD. The LA Times has also routinely documented cases where activists were hospitalized due to serious injuries.
“I asked Eric if he was serious and he just stared at me for a second and then told me to go home. With no facial expression, no nothing, he told me to go home,” Shakir said in a statement, adding that the two shots fired at him were “definitely targeted.”
“This young Black male activist called for his own blood, his own uncle, to think about the immorality of what he was doing, and the result was his uncle ordering the shooting of his nephew with rubber bullets,” said Dr. Melina Abdullah, a BLM LA co-founder. “That just speaks volumes to the complete lack of any kind of moral character, and what happens when people become police … They are willing to even sacrifice their own family in order to advance the interests of a police state.”
“It was one of the most outrageous things I’ve seen,” she said of the live stream footage.
Have you subscribed to theGrio’s podcast “Dear Culture”? Download our newest episodes now!
TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Roku. Download theGrio today!