Takenfrom CNN
A father, his son, and their black real estate agent filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Wyoming, Michigan, the Wyoming police chief, and six police officers after police ordered them out of the house they were visiting to be handcuffed.
On August 1, real estate agent Eric Brown was showing a house to his client, Roy Thorne, and his 15-year-old son, Samuel, when police responded to a neighbor's call, arrived at the house, ordered those inside to come out with their hands up, and handcuffed them.
They were all released shortly afterwards.
The lawsuit, filed on October 1 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan, seeks unspecified damages on five counts, alleging that six police officers violated the plaintiffs' civil rights, including unlawful detention and excessive use of force, as well as equal protection violations. Other charges include assault and battery, false imprisonment, and intentionally inflicting emotional distress.
The city of Wyoming, the six officers involved, and the police chief are all accused.
A city spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit on Friday, telling CNN, "The city of Wyoming does not comment on pending litigation.".
CNN has been unable to determine whether the police chief or the other six officers have legal representation to comment on their behalf. CNN has also contacted the South Kent Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police but has not received a response.
How the incident occurred
The lawsuit comes after an incident that occurred on August 1, when a neighbor called authorities to report that a suspect, who had been arrested on the property a week earlier for trespassing, had returned to the scene in the same car, according to a timeline previously released by the Wyoming Department of Public Safety.
In the audio of the call released by Wyoming police in August, the caller can be heard telling dispatch that a “young Black man” had been arrested at the house the previous week. Police said it was a different person than the one who called in the initial incident, but “the caller was aware of the earlier arrest and had seen the arrested individual and his vehicle.” The homeowner had asked the caller to keep an eye on the house, police said.
A Wyoming officer contacted the caller to clarify that it was the same suspect and vehicle from the previous incident. The caller confirmed this, police said.
However, the caller had the wrong number. Brown was giving Thorne and her son a tour of the house after scheduling the visit online the day before, Brown explained to officers, according to body camera footage released by police.
Footage from police cameras and body cameras showed officers arriving and ordering the three to come out of the house with their hands in the air. They exited the house one by one, following the officers' commands. Both were handcuffed, and Thorne and his teenage son were briefly placed in the back seats of two different patrol cars.
The three were released without incident after Brown explained he was a real estate agent. The officers can be heard in the footage explaining that the house had been burglarized the previous week, acknowledging that this appeared to be a "misunderstanding." The officers removed the handcuffs from Thorne and his son and can be heard apologizing.
The lawsuit attributes the way the plaintiffs were treated to the fact that they are black, saying, "If the plaintiffs had not been African American men, they would not have been held at gunpoint, arrested, and handcuffed.".
Two officers drew their firearms during the incident, Wyoming police said earlier, noting that this is standard protocol when responding to a "reported home invasion in progress with multiple people inside a house.".
Furthermore, the lawsuit claims that the officers had evidence that neither Brown, Thorne, nor his son was the individual who had been arrested the previous week because their cars and license plates did not match those of the previous suspect.
In August, the Wyoming Department of Public Safety said it had conducted an internal review and concluded that "Race played no role in how our officers treated people, and our officers responded appropriately.".
