Nearly a year after being shot by a Denver police officer, the bullet wound in Willis Small IV’s foot keeps him from walking long distances.
The other bystanders shot by the officer last summer outside Lower Downtown bars are also still healing. Bailey Alexander tried to go to a Red Rocks concert, but the crowds nearly induced a panic attack because they reminded her of the crowded scene where the officer shot her in the shoulder. Yekalo Weldehiwet can do push-ups again after the officer shot him in the arm, but is still doing physical therapy. Mark Bess’ memory of watching a woman bleeding on the ground in front of him plagues his nightmares.
The four young people on Tuesday sued the officer who shot them after he fired into a crowd of bar patrons while confronting an armed man. Officer Brandon Ramos recklessly opened fire on the armed man despite the “virtually certain” odds that he would injure people in a large crowd standing in the direction of the officer’s shots, the lawsuit states.
“It’s a night I try not to remember, but a night I’ll never forget,” Bess said.
A grand jury in January indicted Ramos on assault and reckless endangerment charges in connection with the July 17 shooting that injured six bystanders. Ramos was suspended from the police department without pay after he was indicted.
All four of the lawsuit’s plaintiffs were enjoying a night out in the popular LoDo nightlife district near 20th and Larimer streets. They were standing near a food truck outside the Larimer Beer Hall as bars let out for the night when the shooting occurred.
While monitoring the crowd, Denver police officers in the area followed a man they believed to be involved in a fight and who they thought might be armed. Officers confronted the man, Jordan Waddy, as he walked near the Larimer Beer Hall. When he stopped, he grabbed a handgun hidden in his waistband and threw it to the ground.
Three officers — Ramos, Kenneth Rowland and Megan Lieberson — fired at Waddy after he grabbed the gun, though police acknowledged that he held the gun from the top and not the grip.
Rowland and Lieberson faced Waddy from the front and the grand jury found that none of the rounds they fired injured bystanders, according to the indictment.
But Ramos stood to Waddy’s side. Neither of his two rounds he fired struck Waddy; they instead flew into the crowd of more than 50 people gathered near the food truck, the lawsuit states.
“Only by sheer luck, Officer Ramos did not kill any innocent Denverites that day,” the law firms representing the four plaintiffs — Rathod Mohamedbhai and Fuicelli and Lee — said in a news release.
Denver Police Department officials declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing pending litigation and the criminal case against Ramos.
The bullet that struck Weldehiwet shattered a bone in his arm, which required surgery to repair. The bullet that struck Alexander entered her shoulder and exited her upper right arm. Small was injured in the foot by a bullet and Bess suffered a graze wound to his chest as well as injuries from being stepped on in the chaos that followed the shooting.
Beyond physical pain, all four now fear crowds and public settings, the lawsuit states. They avoid police officers and places they know police regularly patrol because they fear being hurt again.
“I’m never in a calm state of mind the way that I used to be,” Weldehiwet said.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday is the second against Ramos in connection to the shooting. A woman allegedly shot in the leg by Ramos sued the officer in March.
The four victims who sued Tuesday hope the lawsuit will force the department and the officer to take accountability for their pain.
“It’s a step in the right direction,” Alexander said.
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