DENVER — A Pueblo County sheriff’s deputy shot and killed an unarmed man outside of a middle school last year after contacting the man because he accidentally got into the wrong car in the school’s pick-up line, a federal civil rights lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges.
The deputy, Charles McWhorter, yanked 32-year-old Richard Ward from his mother’s car outside Liberty Point International Middle School in Pueblo West on Feb. 22, 2022, after Ward put something in his mouth while McWhorter spoke to him, according to body camera footage released by attorneys representing Ward’s family.
Ward and McWhorter briefly struggled on the ground before McWhorter shot Ward three times in the chest at point-blank range, the video shows.
Neither McWhorter nor another deputy on scene, Cassandra Gonzales, provided medical care to Ward as he lay bleeding on the ground, the footage shows. McWhorter didn’t give Ward orders before pulling him from the car and never gave a warning that he was going to use deadly force, the video shows.
Ward died on the ground outside the school as kids wearing backpacks walked past. The entire incident, from first contact to shots fired, lasted two minutes.
“Richard Ward’s death is a profound injustice — an unarmed, cooperative citizen shot and killed in front of his mother by a Pueblo County sheriff’s deputy,” said Darold Killmer, the Ward family’s attorney. “This was nothing short of state-sanctioned murder of a citizen who should not have been even arrested, let alone killed in broad daylight.”
Tenth Judicial District Attorney Jeff Chostner in October chose not to charge the deputies in connection to Ward’s death because he found they justifiably feared for their lives and acted reasonably. In interviews with investigators, McWhorter said Ward was grabbing his duty belt and he feared Ward would take his gun, according to the letter explaining Chostner’s decision.
But the encounter never should have escalated to the point of a physical struggle or deadly force, according to the wrongful-death lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court against Pueblo County and five sheriff’s officials. McWhorter “recklessly and deliberately initiated a wholly unnecessary and purposeless physical use of force against and struggle with Mr. Ward,” the lawsuit states.
Ward had not committed a crime and was answering the deputies’ questions when McWhorter took him to the ground, the lawsuit states.
“My heart is broken,” Ward’s mother, Kristy Ward Stamp, said in a statement. “I have no words to explain this to Richard’s little brother. Our family has been ripped apart.”
McWhorter approached Ward in Stamp’s car after a call about a suspicious man trying to open car doors, according to the district attorney’s letter. One person reported the man may be “on something” and acted “aggressive” with one car, according to the letter.
People on scene directed McWhorter to Stamp’s car, where Ward, Stamp and Stamp’s boyfriend sat inside, body camera footage shows.
Ward explained to McWhorter that they were waiting to pick up his little brother from school. Ward told McWhorter that cops make him nervous because he had been hit by officers before.
McWhorter asked Ward whether he’d had that experience with the police department or the sheriff’s office.
“We’re different, we’re the sheriff’s office,” McWhorter said.
Ward explained to McWhorter that he accidentally got into the wrong car because he mistook the vehicle for his mother’s. McWhorter then asked for Ward’s identification and whether he had any weapons. As Ward searched for his ID, he said he might have a pocket knife and showed McWhorter two lighters.
Ward then put something in his mouth, causing McWhorter to grab him by the jacket and push him to the ground, the video shows.
“It was a pill, let me go!” Ward said as he was pushed to the ground, according to the video. The pill was likely anxiety medication Ward had been prescribed, Killmer said.
McWhorter’s body camera fell off during the ensuing struggle, but footage from Gonzales’s camera shows the two deputies struggling with Ward for 20 seconds before McWhorter shot Ward.
Ward lay on the ground after he was shot, but neither deputy rendered aid or checked his vital signs.
Ward’s mother, still sitting in the front passenger seat of the car, can be heard on body camera screaming, “Is my son shot?”
The deputies didn’t answer her except to tell her to stay in the car. Ward was dead by the time fire department paramedics arrived five minutes later.
McWhorter told a fellow sheriff’s deputy that Ward “headbutted my nose and then tried grabbing at my stuff,” body camera footage shows.
An internal investigation into whether McWhorter and Gonzales should be disciplined is ongoing, Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Gayle Perez said. The sheriff’s office made changes in an attempt to improve its de-escalation training in response to the shooting, she said.
Perez declined to comment on the broader allegations in the lawsuit because the sheriff’s office does not comment on pending litigation. Both deputies still work as patrol deputies for the agency, she said.
The incident simply did not have to end with Ward dead, Killmer said. Taking a pill is not a crime, he said.
“Defendant McWhorter could have ordered Richard to spit the pill out,” the lawsuit states. “He could have ordered him to step out of the car. He could even have ordered him to present his hands to McWhorter so as to address any concerns McWhorter might have had about that. McWhorter did none of these things.”
Attorneys representing Ward’s family denied that Ward tried to take McWhorter’s gun and said the sheriff has lied about what happened.
Attorney Mari Newman pointed out a news conference on the day of the shooting during which Sheriff David Lucero said Ward “jumped out of the vehicle and had immediate contact with our deputies” when the deputies approached.
“The evidence doesn’t lie, even if the sheriff did,” Newman said. “Richard was peaceful, he was unarmed, he was doing nothing wrong.”
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