A federal civil rights lawsuit filed in Kansas claims a sheriff’s deputy used his patrol truck to run over a Black man who fled a traffic stop earlier this year because he felt in fear for his life.
The incident captured on police dashcam video shows 35-year-old Lionel Womack running shirtless across a field in the middle of the night as Kiowa County Sheriff’s Deputy Jeremy Rodriguez gave chase and rolled over the man.
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Womack, a former police detective from Kansas City, Kansas, claims in the excessive force suit that Rodriguez intentionally drove over him during the Aug. 15 pursuit, causing serious injuries.
In a statement, Womack said he wasn’t speeding nor driving drunk when the officer pulled him over. “When the first officer turned his lights on, I pulled over and complied ... exactly as you’re supposed to,” he stated in court documents.
Next, Womack said his driver’s license checked out along with all the documentation for his vehicle, so he felt he should be free to go.
“But when three additional vehicles pulled up quickly and started to surround my car, I freaked out,” he said. “That’s when I took off, it was a ‘fight or flight’ moment and I was going to live. I felt like I was in danger. This was out in the country, late at night, 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.”
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The dashcam video is at the crux of the federal civil rights case filed by attorney Michael Kuckelman against the deputy in U.S. District Court in Kansas.
The lawsuit argues that Rodriguez used excessive force and was “callously indifferent” to Womack’s civil rights.
Womack retired from the police department earlier that same month with hopes of growing his own security business.
He was on his way back home from a business trip to California when a Kansas Highway Patrol officer in western Kansas initiated a chase over “an alleged traffic violation,” according to the lawsuit. Sheriff’s deputies from Pratt County and Kiowa County soon joined the pursuit, according to The Associated Press.
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The car chase ended on a dirt road, and Womack took off across a nearby field.
The dashcam footage from a Pratt County sheriff’s deputy’s vehicle shows Rodriguez using his patrol truck to catch up to Womack, who was unarmed.
Rodriguez swerves his truck to hit Womack, knocking him to the ground and running over him. Womack rolls out from under the truck, his arms and legs flailing as someone on the video shouts, “lie down, lie down.” A deputy in the second patrol truck can be heard uttering an expletive as he watches.
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Womack says 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,” Kuckelman said. “It is impossible to watch a video of a deputy driving his truck over Mr. Womack without feeling sick. There was nowhere for Mr. Womack to go. It was an open field, and he was trapped, yet the deputy drove his truck over him anyway.”
The deputy’s race was unclear.
Kuckelman, Womack’s attorney, urged Kiowa County Sheriff Chris Tedder in person and in letters to fire Rodriguez, and the sheriff has refused. Rodriguez remains on patrol.
Womack remains jailed more than four months later on felony charges of attempting to elude a law enforcement officer by engaging in reckless driving and interference with a law enforcement officer.
Court records show he is also charged with several misdemeanor traffic citations, including failure to drive in the right lane on a four-lane highway, improper signal and driving without headlights.
Kuckelman said Womack had remained in jail because of an outstanding arrest warrant in Oklahoma. The attorney added that authorities there said they needed a governor’s warrant to extradite Womack. They received it and extradited him Thursday to Guymon, Oklahoma. According to Kuckelman, Oklahoma officials believe Womack was speeding as he drove through the Guymon area but could not catch him.
Online court records show Womack was charged Aug. 12 in Texas County, Oklahoma, with endangering others while eluding or attempting to elude police.
Information provided by The Associated Press was used to supplement this report.
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