Full Version of the Hurt Lawsuit.
Charleston Gazette-Mail article from this Sunday:
WV family’s call to police ends in excessive force lawsuit
A family from Camp Creek, in Mercer County, is alleging West Virginia State Police troopers and a Division of Natural Resources officer violated their civil rights and exercised excessive force on them after they called police in 2016 to report an armed, unstable neighbor — who later called in a fake hostage situation, stole a police cruiser from a trooper and set it ablaze — according to a federal lawsuit filed last month in the Southern District of West Virginia.
“It was just like boom, out of nowhere all of a sudden my yard was filled with them, all screaming and hollering at [Lilly],” Ronnie Hurt said…..
Wills, who was on the phone with 911 during the entire incident, heard officers yelling at her father to step off the porch with his hands up. Due to health issues and physical disabilities, she knew he needed help climbing the porch stairs, so she went outside to assist.
Within seconds of Willis stepping outside, Trooper John R. Tupper and DNR officer Marshall Richards grabbed her and her father by the arms, yanking them “violently and forcefully” face-first off the porch and onto the ground, the suit reads.
“They didn’t tell me anything, nothing at all,” Wills said. “Not to put my hands up, not to hang up the phone. I didn’t even have a chance before I was on the ground.”
One officer grabbed Wills’ phone, hung up on 911 and threw it on the ground before stepping on it with his boot, she said.
Good Blog! But felt bad for innocent people who suffered