Aurora Man Demands Justice After Police Incident Last Winter
AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) - A man who says he was assaulted by police officers when he really needed medical help says he is suing the city of Aurora and the three Aurora police officers who were involved.
Rickey Burrell's partner Evelyn King called 911 from their home on Yampa Street last December saying he was having a seizure.
According to the lawsuit, two officers were first to respond and they ran to the bedroom. One officer drove his knee into Burrell's back and another jerked his hands behind him and put him in handcuffs. Burrell says at that point he woke up face down in his underwear.
The lawsuit goes on to state that instead of giving him medical help they dragged him outside in the cold with only his underwear on.
"The officers told me to shut the blank up and get my hands behind my back. And I started screaming 'You all are hurting me, you're killing me. I haven't done anything.' Yet they kept on doing what they were doing," Burrell said.
The suit claims the officers dragged Burrell down the stairs, breaking his wrist and injuring his back, before eventually taking him for medical treatment.
"It was very humiliating for them to take him out in the dead of December in his soiled underwear," King said.
Mari Newman of the law firm Killmer, Lane and Newman is representing Burrell in the suit.
"Law enforcement officials in Colorado have lost track of the fact they are here to protect and serve," Newman said.
Charles Richardson, Aurora's city attorney told CBS4 Burrell was taken to the hospital because of his condition and not because of anything its officers did.
"The defendant's attorneys are very much about 'lights, camera, action' where we prefer to investigate first," Richardson said. "We are 100 percent supportive of the officers involved."
