KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A man has filed a lawsuit against five Kansas City, Missouri, police officers alleging he was held against his will and slammed face first into a pavement at the scene of a deadly shooting.
Lawyers for Mack C. Nelson filed the civil lawsuit this week in Jackson County Court.
The incident happened on Aug. 8, 2022, at a gas station at east 55th Street and Prospect Avenue. KCPD shot and killed a man at the location after a confrontation.
Nelson claims in the lawsuit his problems began about 10 p.m. that night.
KCMO police officers were checking on a stolen car parked at the gas station/convenience store when someone in the convenience store came out and got into the car.
The man in the stolen car drove at an officer and that forced the officer to jump out of the way to avoid being hit.
Police later shot and killed the man.
Nelson, in his suit, states he was at the gas station, but had not committed any crimes.
He states an officer held him against his will for several hours inside the convenience store.
Once he was allowed to leave the store, Nelson went outside and began posting videos with his cell phone on Facebook Live.
He moved to another spot on the parking lot and continued posting video on Facebook Live, according to the lawsuit.
An officer named in the suit asked Nelson to leave and the suit states he immediately backed up and tried to leave.
Another officer also named in the suit allegedly grabbed Nelson from behind and knocked Nelson's cell phone out of his hand.
The suit alleges that officer slammed Nelson to the ground.
Nelson was not able to break the fall because his hands were restrained behind his back.
He suffered injuries to his eye, face, head, shoulder and body, the suit claims. Nelson continues to suffer from PTSD from the incident, according to the suit.
In the suit, Nelson makes the claims the officers tried to justify their actions by "falsely claiming" he resisted arrest and engaged in disorderly conduct.
"They contradict each other. And they contradict each other with the facts as Mack told people what happened and what we can see on the video,” according to John Picerno, Nelson's attorney.
The officers did not have their body cameras on at the time when Nelson was allegedly driven into the pavement.
Only one of the five officers turned on their body camera after that incident, the suit states.
Nelson also accuses two officers of falsifying their official reports on the incident.
“When he was in custody, he pled guilty to those offenses, without the benefit of knowing either of these police reports existed, without the benefit of even knowing there was as video of the incident," Picerno said.
KSHB 41 reached Thursday night to KCPD for a statement on the lawsuit.
"Generally we do not comment on pending civil litigation, additionally there is an ongoing criminal investigation in this incident," said KCPD Capt. Corey Carlisle, a spokesperson for the department. "Once that investigation is complete, we will submit a case file to the prosecutor’s office for their review and recommendation."
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