A Radcliff, Kentucky man is suing the city after he alleges a police officer deliberately used his cruiser to run him over during a foot chase.
Anthony Gray has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging that Radcliff Police Officer Robert Stephens used excessive and unreasonable force during a trespassing stop in September 2021.
The incident occured when police were responding to a report of a man refusing to leave a nearby hotel. Officers can be seen on video confronting Gray, who is seen leaving the property.
During the conversation, an officer attempted to grab Gray, and he managed to escape. One officer ran after him, while another chased Gray in the police car.
The lawsuit alleges that the officer “intentionally turned his steering wheel” and hit Gray. The hit broke the man’s leg and caused other injuries. According to the suit, the action was an “intentional use of a lethal weapon,” and an officer on the scene said he “heard Gray’s lower left leg crunch.”
Body camera footage of the encounter shows officers apprehending Gray as he lay on the ground yelling in pain and begging them to take him to the hospital. One of the officers confirms that he ran over Gray’s leg on camera.
Gray had committed at most a minor offense and had not verbally or physically threatened Stephens or anyone else, so there was no reason to believe he posed a danger to anyone, the lawsuit argues.
“You see this and you think, hey, this would not have happened if Anthony Gray didn’t run from the police,” Gray’s attorney Aaron Bentley said, “I can’t tell you that you’re wrong. What I can tell you is police officers encounter people who run from them. It happens every day. So, police have to be trained to handle those situations appropriately.”
“Do the police officers use reasonable force in arresting someone? This was not reasonable, not a reasonable use of force,” Bentley said. “Anthony was not a threat to anyone, he was suspected only of having a violation… So there were other ways to ensure that Anthony faced consequences for the alleged trespassing that didn’t involve violence that could’ve killed him.”
Gray is asking for a jury trial and punitive damages.
