Bystander’s leg permanently damaged after she was shot by cop, Colorado lawsuit says
A bystander who was shot by an officer aiming at a suspect and is now suing the police department and the officer, according to her lawyer.
A bystander says she has permanent damage to her leg after she was shot by a police officer on a crowded street, according to a Colorado lawsuit.
Angelica Rey, 23, was walking with a friend in downtown Denver and celebrating a work promotion when she was shot in the leg by a police officer who had opened fire on a suspect, according to the lawsuit, filed on March 7.
At around 1:30 a.m. on July 17, three Denver police officers were on patrol downtown, according to the lawsuit. They tried to approach a man who had punched another person and had a “bulge in his pocket” that looked like a gun, the lawsuit says.
The man walked away, and as the officers ordered him to stop, he took a gun out of his pocket and threw it onto the sidewalk, the lawsuit says.
Two officers fired six shots at him, the lawsuit says.
The third officer, Brandon Ramos, who had a side view of the man, shot at him but missed, the lawsuit says. “Dozens” of people were walking on the sidewalk in front of the suspect.
A total of five bystanders were shot and a sixth was injured, according to the Denver Post.
One of the shots hit Rey in the leg, “causing her to immediately fall to the ground,” the lawsuit says.
“Panicked” people in the crowd started to run, and Rey, who was “nearly trampled,” was taken to a hospital in an ambulance, the lawsuit says.
The bullet severed a nerve in Rey’s right leg, and she has “permanent neurologic injury,” the lawsuit says.
The Denver Police Department said in a statement to McClatchy News that it could not comment on the lawsuit. Ramos is suspended without pay pending the outcome of his criminal cause, according to the department.
The City Attorney’s Office of Denver did not immediately respond to a request for information from McClatchy News.
Ramos is facing eight counts of assault, four counts of reckless endangerment and one count of reckless use of a weapon, the Denver Post reported. The other two officers who shot at the suspect that night were not charged after a grand jury investigation found that they “had a clear backdrop” to shoot, according to the outlet.
In the lawsuit, Rey said since the shooting, she has experienced economic loss, medical expenses, pain, suffering, emotional distress and loss of quality of life. She is requesting damages, relief for her economic losses and attorney’s fees.
