Lawsuit: Springfield officers failed to de-escalate before shooting in Best Buy parking lot
Two Springfield officers failed to use non-lethal force or de-escalate a March 2020 encounter with Chase Brooks in the Best Buy parking lot before one of them fatally shot him three times in the chest, a federal lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Brooks’ estate and family a year after the family filed a wrongful death claim with the city, also claims the 911 call taker and operator gave police inaccurate information that caused them to “behave in an aggressive and lethal manner.”
Springfield police Officer Eric Pardee shot and killed 32-year-old Brooks on March 14, 2020, in the Best Buy parking lot on Gateway Street after he allegedly damaged a vehicle with a weapon. The District Attorney's office found Pardee's use of deadly force was lawful.
But the lawsuit claims Pardee, Officer Anthony DelCastillo, dispatcher Tracy Komisar and call taker Kylee Welch escalated the situation in various ways and alleges the city failed to properly train employees.
The city is aware of the lawsuit and is reviewing the legal complaint, spokeswoman Amber Fossen said Monday afternoon.
Brooks’ family claims the 32-year-old was removing a broken front windshield from his work truck and multiple people misunderstood the situation.
“To passersby this sparked 911 calls, even though he can be seen on Best Buy video going in and out of his toolbox in the bed of his truck to assist in accomplishing this task,” the legal complaint reads.
A man called 911 while talking to Brooks, who the lawsuit claims was “calmly and rationally” telling the man he was breaking out his windshield so he could see to drive home. The call taker could hear the conversation but didn’t try to talk to Brooks to assess his state of mind, the complaint reads, and made "incriminating suggestions" by asking whether Brooks was drunk or threatening the caller.
Read about the original claim: 'There should be consequences': Family of man killed by Springfield police files $2M wrongful death claim
The lawsuit adds that dispatchers then “by commission or omission, reported to defendant officers a frantic, increasingly out of control, perhaps drunk, individual waving a tire iron,” thereby escalating a “non-violent, sober situation.”
As officers arrived, Pardee first followed Brooks then stopped but “did not park his vehicle in a position angled across the driving lane as he was trained, in order to place his vehicle between himself and Mr. Brooks, preventing any harm from coming to either of them,” the lawsuit reads.
Pardee ended up getting out of the car and in “a matter of seconds” shot Brooks three times even though he was “noticeably slowing down when he heard the officer yell at him as he lowered his arms in a passive surrendering position.”
The lawsuit adds Pardee and DelCastillo had time before arriving to get bean bag guns as a non-lethal option and “had both time and practical opportunity for calm deliberation before making the decision to use lethal force” but failed to use other tools at their disposal, such as tasers and pepper spray.
When Pardee did shoot, the complaint adds, he didn’t shoot Brooks anywhere nonfatal despite “being a SWAT firearms trainer and marksman.”
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Pardee and DelCastillo then didn’t provide medical attention, the lawsuit alleges, but instead “complained how Brooks continued to be noncompliant with three bullets in his heart area.”
According to The Register-Guard archive, Pardee was involved in a fatal shooting in October 2006. In that case, Pardee shot Scott Boyko, 37, in the chest after Boyko, who warned officers he had a gun, ignored commands to show his hands and appeared to potentially endanger a child in the home.
The DA at the time found Pardee's use of lethal force was justified.
Brian Michaels, the Brooks' attorney, wrote in an email that if Pardee had been "properly disciplined," he might not have "rushed to fatal force first so quickly, or at all, with Mr. Brooks."
The lawsuit makes various claims, including allegations of excessive force and negligence and a wrongful death claim. The family is asking for damages up to $10 million.
Contact city government watchdog Megan Banta at mbanta@registerguard.com. Follow her on Twitter @MeganBanta_1.
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Family of man killed by SPD claims officers failed to deescalate
