A dangerous police chase ended with a suspect captured, but an innocent man who was severely injured has filed a lawsuit against the state.
Terry Grizzle is suing the state for $1 million because he was thrown 30 feet in the midst of a police chase, according to Channel 2 Action News.
He has no recollection of the crash, but recently received the dashcam footage from the incident in 2014 through an open records request.
Grizzle was on a 12-foot ladder repairing a sign in front of a business, when he was hit by a stolen truck that police were chasing in Lumpkin County.
The police performed a PIT maneuver, which is a controlled crash intended to steer a car to a stop. The maneuver caused the truck to spin out and crash into the ladder, propelling Grizzle through the air. He was critically injured, required surgery, and now wants the state patrol to pay his $200,000 medical bills, he previously told Channel 2.
The video, for the first time, shows the chase and the aftermath.
The stolen truck spun out of control, landing on its side up against a post.
In the background you can see suspect Shannon Cribs run away, and a trooper run after him, according to Channel 2.
Closer to the dash-mounted camera, Grizzle rolled over in pain.
“They had to reconstruct my nose, fractured forehead, fractured cheekbone,” Grizzle told Channel 2.
He and his lawyer, Steve Leibel, sued the Department of Public Safety, saying the state should be responsible for Grizzle’s medical bills.
The state claimed immunity Monday and wouldn’t discuss the issue for Channel 2’s report.
Leibel said the crash should have never happened because authorities already knew who the suspect was at the time he ran from a traffic stop. Police didn’t need to use the dangerous maneuver to end the chase — especially, Leibel said, not at that location on a busy two lane road.
“Yet you still decide that human life is not as important as that of a vehicle,” Leibel told Channel 2.
The state still has several weeks to officially respond in court to the lawsuit, which was filed in Lumpkin County.
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