Family sues Aurora police over botched stolen-car response that left children handcuffed, held at gunpoint – The Denver Post
A Black woman and four children who were held at gunpoint when Aurora police officers mistakenly thought they were in a stolen vehicle sued the city of Aurora, Chief Vanessa Wilson and five police officers Monday, alleging the officers had no legal grounds for their actions.
Video of the Aug. 2 incident shows the children — ages 6, 12, 14 and 17 — laying face-down in a parking lot and screaming in fear as police handcuffed the 12-year-old and 17-year-old after officers ordered everyone out of the SUV at gunpoint.
One officer attempted to handcuff the 6-year-old girl as well, according to the lawsuit, but the handcuffs were “too big to fit around her wrists.”
The family had done nothing wrong. Driver Brittney Gilliam had been planning to have a day out for the kids, with plans to get their nails done and then eat some ice cream, according to the lawsuit. The nail salon she’d planned to visit was closed when they arrived, so she’d stopped in the parking lot to look up another nearby place.
The police officers who mistakenly believed the car was stolen — Darian Dasko and Madisen Moen — failed to check information they’d received from a license-plate reader that showed it was a motorcycle with Montana plates that had been reported stolen, not an SUV with Colorado plates. While the SUV had the same plate number as the stolen motorcycle, it was completely uninvolved.
“There was no indication whatsoever that Ms. Gilliam and the girls posed any danger to (officers) or anyone else,” the lawsuit said. “On the contrary, it was the (officers) who placed an innocent woman and four children at risk of harm by holding them at gunpoint, cuffing and frisking them and leaving them permanently traumatized.”
The lawsuit alleges that the Aurora Police Department has inadequate training, that the officers had no probable cause to stop the family and that the police department has a history of racist actions and police brutality.
The 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office earlier this month cleared the officers of criminal wrongdoing, with Chief Deputy District Attorney Clinton McKinzie calling the incident “unacceptable and preventable,” but not criminal.
Two days after the incident, Wilson said it had been “done wrong,” and apologized, saying the officers made several errors.
The bungled stop drew national attention, and the lawsuit says that Gilliam and the children are all in therapy. Some of the children are struggling to eat and sleep, according to the lawsuit.
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