TOPEKA (KSNT) – It’s been three years since Topeka police shot and killed Taylor Lowery.
Tuesday night, family and community members held a memorial before Topeka’s city council meeting to remember his life, and others who have died from the hands of Topeka police.
Three years ago, five Topeka Police officers shot Taylor Lowery 34 times. Stemming from a domestic call, a preliminary investigation from the KBI showed Lowery was armed with a knife and behaving erratically. Investigators say after attempting to steal a car, Lowery moved towards officers with a knife. That’s when he was shot and killed outside of a Kwik Shop in South Topeka.
Family members questioned that narrative. Wanting more answers, this case went years before the body camera footage went public. According to NBC News, the video showed Lowery was reaching for a wrench when he was shot, and the knife was elsewhere on the ground.
Lowery’s family wants to keep others from fighting a long legal battle like the one they fought.
“Just here to support my son, so, and that he gets the justice that he deserves,” Lowery’s mom Belinda Thomas said
“It’s just emotional to carry on and just to think of how he was lost,” Lowery’s daughter Lah’Niyah Duncan said. “It just hurts.”
Even though the family dropped their wrongful death lawsuit, Civil Rights Lawyer, Laronna Lassiter Saunders says their fight still continues to this day.
“These families, their lives don’t go on,” Saunders said. “They don’t get to just pick up the pieces and move on. Especially, when you have city officials that have not acknowledged, have dismissed, and have acted as if the families in the wrong for speaking out and trying to get justice.”
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In honor of Lowery, the family and supporters released balloons into the sky with #LLTL.
Christina Valdivia-Alcala was the only Topeka City Council member to attend the memorial.
27 News asked her why she believes the community needs transparency from law enforcement.
“There is a need because of historic violence against black and brown folks, and white folks at times by folks on the police department,” Valdivia-Alcala said. “That transparency and change is needed.”
Following the memorial, Lowery’s family and other members of the community attended Tuesday night’s city council meeting, where they addressed city leaders directly during public comment.
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