A D.C. man is suing two Metro cops, saying they violated his civil rights and injured him when they threw him from his wheelchair during an arrest last spring.
Dwight Harris accuses Metro Transit officers Fred Price and Dave Burpoe of grabbing him without provocation May 19 as he sat in his motorized wheelchair on U Street and smashing his face onto the concrete sidewalk, according to the suit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
He cut his face and head in the fall, blacked out, and continues to suffer headaches, according to the lawsuit.
The case gained widespread attention last spring when a video of the arrest went viral.
It is the second lawsuit stemming from the arrest. Last month, another case was filed by an acquaintance of Harris’ who accused Price of violating his civil rights to free speech for arresting him when he questioned police actions.
Charges against that man were dropped, as were charges against Harris accusing him of assaulting an officer and having an open container of alcohol.
Federal investigators decided not to pursue criminal civil rights charges against the police officers, citing insufficient evidence.
But Harris’ suit, filed last month, says the battery “was so outrageous in character and extreme in degree as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency, and to be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community.”
It says the confrontation started just as Harris was about to start a shift selling the Street Sense newspaper. One of the officers asked Harris what was in the covered McDonald’s paper cup on the side of his chair.
Harris says he reached into his pocket to get his ID and did not attempt to attack the officers. But the officers pushed him to the ground, pulling his arm behind his back to handcuff him.
The suit says the officers did not request medical attention for Harris, with only passersby calling for an ambulance as Harris lay bleeding and handcuffed.
Metro, which will likely represent the officers, declined to comment on the suit. But spokesman Dan Stessel said the police did request medical attention for Harris.
Harris woke up handcuffed in a hospital bed, then was released to a D.C. police holding cell. He was detained for two days. He has since suffered a stroke, the suit says.
The suit said the officers violated his Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights, plus D.C. laws for false arrest and battery.
