BELLE PLAINE, Ch. (AP) – The dashcam video captured a gruesome scene: a Kansas sheriff’s deputy in a patrol car mowing a shirtless black man running across a field in summer darkness after fleeing a traffic stop.
Lionel Womack – a 35-year-old former Kansas City, Kansas-based police detective – alleges in an outrageous lawsuit filed Thursday that he sustained serious injuries when Jeremy Rodriguez, deputy sheriff of Kiowa County, deliberately drove over him during the August 15 meeting. .
Womack said in a statement that he had neither speeded nor was under the influence of anything when he was initially stopped. His driver’s license, insurance and registration were up to date.
When the first officer turned on his lights, I stopped and obeyed … just as you should. But when three additional vehicles quickly pulled up and started to surround my car, I panicked. When I left, it was a ‘fight or flight’ moment and I was going to live, ”he said. “I felt like I was in danger. This was late at night in the countryside and it was dark. So I ran for my life. That’s what you see in the dashcam video. I’m running in an open field and I’m scared. “
The graphic video is at the heart of the federal civil rights lawsuit filed by attorney Michael Kuckelman against the deputy in the US District Court in Kansas. The lawsuit states that Rodriguez used excessive force and was “heartlessly indifferent” to Womack’s civil rights.
Womack had left the police force earlier in August in hopes of building his own security company. He was on his way back home from a business trip to California when a Kansas Highway Patrol officer in western Kansas launched a chase for “an alleged traffic violation,” the lawsuit said. Pratt County and Kiowa County deputies joined the chase.
The chase eventually ended on a dirt track, and Womack took off on foot over a nearby farm.
The dashcam footage of a Pratt County sheriff’s vehicle shows Rodriguez using his patrol car to overtake Womack, who was unarmed.
Rodriguez swerves his truck to hit Womack, knock him to the ground, and run over him. Womack rolls out from under the truck, his arms and legs swinging on the floor as someone on the video shouts, “Lie down, lie down.” A deputy sheriff in the second patrol car can utter a curse while watching what is happening.
Womack alleges in his lawsuit that he sustained serious injuries to his back, pelvis and thigh, as well as to his right knee, ankle and foot.
“The dashcam video is disturbing,” said Kuckelman. “It’s impossible to watch a video of a deputy sheriff driving his truck over Mr. Womack without feeling ill. Mr. Womack had nowhere to go. It was an open field and he was trapped, but the sheriff’s deputy drove his truck over him. “
Neither Kiowa County sheriff Chris Tedder nor his attorney have responded to the Associated Press’ requests for comment. No one has explained why Rodriguez chose to take down Womack. The deputy’s race is unclear.
Kuckelman has personally and in letters urged Tedder to fire Rodriguez, and the sheriff has refused. Rodriguez remains on patrol. Kuckelman also wants Rodriguez to be prosecuted and has accused the sheriff of covering up the deputy’s behavior.
Four months later, Womack is still jailed on charges of attempting to evade a law enforcement officer by driving recklessly and interfering with a law enforcement officer. Court records show that he has also been charged with several traffic quotes, including not driving on the right lane on a dual carriageway, an incorrect signal and driving without headlights.
Zee Womack said her husband is still in prison over an unrelated Oklahoma extradition request. Online court records show that Lionel Womack in Texas County, Oklahoma, was charged with endangering others while escaping or attempting to evade police on August 12, just days before meeting with law enforcement officials in Kansas.
The records indicate that Womack was arrested by a police officer in the town of Tyrone, less than five miles south of the Kansas state line.
Womack comes from a police and justice family. His wife and mother are police officers with the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department. His stepfather retired as a sergeant there. Two aunts are police officers.
Zee Womack watched the video in which her husband was first run over on Wednesday. She replayed them four times as she struggled to understand why the deputy felt justified in using such a thing. Her husband is lucky to be alive, she said.
“I’m also a police officer, and I feel like being a police officer right now is a very difficult time. I think we don’t always get the support that would be helpful in this pursuit, ”she said shortly after watching the video. “And this makes it a lot harder to be an officer.”
An officer who can make such decisions, she said, should not have a badge.
“To me it showed a blatant disregard for human life,” she said. Zee Womack filed a federal lawsuit last year for “rampant racism and sexism” in the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department.
Lionel Womack said in his statement that most police officers are good and that he believes in the “blue brotherhood”.
“But we have to hold law enforcement accountable if they cross the line,” he said. “These rogue law enforcement officers are giving a bad name to the good officers and we need to stop them. I never thought I would ever be the victim of excessive violence by a fellow law enforcement officer. He could have easily killed me.”