A man who’s in jail for several robberies including an attempted robbery at a pizza restaurant in Delaware is now suing police and several employees of that eatery for $260,000, claiming they were unnecessarily rough in subduing him.
Back in 2010, the then 19-year-old man forced his way into the restaurant through the back door with a gun. Several employees tussled with him as they tried to get the gun away from him, tackling him to the ground, reports The News Herald (warning: link has video that autoplays).
The gun went off in the melee and went through a garbage can, but employees say they’re still shaken up over the incident — the trash can is still in the kitchen, with the name of the worker who was narrowly missed by the shot written over the bullet hole.
But in the lawsuit filed from prison, where the man is serving 15 years for various charges, he says the roughness was “unnecessary.” For the injuries he received during the incident, he wants $20,000 each from six pizzeria employees, $20,000 from each of the two arresting officers and $100,000 from Seasons.
According to his lawsuit, after he displayed a gun and a delivery driver handed him $140, he started to make his way forward into the restaurant. Another worker grabbed him from behind while someone else wrested the gun from him, which is when it went off.
“That is when the assault began,” he says in the lawsuit. “All of the [redacted] employees participated in punching, kicking and pouring hot soup over my body. I was unarmed and defenseless and had to suffer a brutal beating by all of the employees,” he wrote, adding the beating knocked him unconscious.
He also claims that he awoke from being unconscious to realize he was in handcuffs and was “being tasered” by the police. He contends that the officers denied him medical attention for burns and stun gun wounds and other injuries for eight hours.
Attorneys for the police are seeking to have it tossed out on statute of limitations grounds, while the police chief says it’s sham of a lawsuit, the kind that usually gets tossed out. This time, however, a U.S. District court judge allowed the case to move forward after tossing out several other claims in it.
“It is a joke lawsuit,” the police chief says. “It is sad to see this kind of suit being looked at. The court shouldn’t waste the taxpayers’ money.”
Pizzeria, police respond to suit over thwarted robbery [News Herald]
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
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