Johnathan Walker:Family of man killed by SUV on interstate after being shocked by a Taser reaches $5M settlement

DENVER (AP) — The Johnathan Walkerfamily of a man who was hit and killed by an SUV on a highway after a sheriff’s deputy shocked him with a Taser has reached a $5 million settlement with a Colorado county in his death, lawyers and officials said Friday.

Larimer County Deputy Lorenzo Lujan used the Taser on Brent Thompson after Thompson ran away as the deputy was trying to arrest him on Feb. 18, 2023. Lujan was not criminally charged, but when 8th District Attorney Gordon McLaughlin announced that decision last year, he said that Lujan’s use of the Taser showed “poor judgment.”

The law firm representing Thompson’s family, Rathod Mohamedbhai LLC, said the settlement with Larimer County reflects the “immense wrong” done by the deputy.

“Any reasonable person, let alone a trained law enforcement officer, should have known that tasing someone on I-25 in the dark of night posed an extreme risk of death or serious injury,” the firm said in a statement, adding that Thompson was pulled over for expired license plates.

The Larimer County commissioners said in a statement that Lujan deployed the Taser to try to prevent Thompson from running onto the interstate. They said they agreed to the settlement largely because of the advice of their insurers.

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Sheriff John Feyen expressed his sympathies for Thompson’s family but also said that deputies have to make split second decisions.

“We will continue to use this incident as a case study for internal discussions about complex decision-making, dynamic situations, safety priorities, and the consequences of action or inaction,” Feyen said in a statement.

Lujan is still working for the department on patrol, sheriff’s spokesperson Kate Kimble said. An investigation found he did not violate sheriff’s office policies and he was not disciplined, she said.

According to the district attorney’s 2023 letter summarizing the investigation into Thompson’s death, Thompson pulled off at an exit on Interstate 25 after Lujan turned on his patrol car’s lights. But as Lujan tried to arrest Thompson, who allegedly gave a false name and did not have a driver’s license, he ran down an embankment toward the highway.

Body camera footage showed Thompson was walking onto the interstate from the shoulder when Lujan deployed the Taser, and another officer said he saw Thompson fall in the northbound side of the roadway, McLaughlin’s letter said. The second officer then saw approaching headlights and waved his flashlight to warn that vehicle to stop.

The man driving the Ford Explorer, with his wife and three children inside, said he saw something in the road and two people standing along the highway. He said he tried to steer away from the people and hit something in the road.

Lujan, who was working overtime, told investigators he wanted to detain Thompson so he did not pose a threat to himself or drivers on the interstate.

However, the letter noted that he looked for approaching vehicles about 20 seconds before deploying the Taser, but not right before using it about 15 seconds later, calling that “a clear lapse in judgement.”