Chattanooga, TN – 8 August 2019 – Lawsuits against the Chattanooga Police and a lender have finally erupted from what initially appeared to be a serious breach of peace involving police assistance that occurred on June 25th of last year. The video of the repossession attempt went viral, wherein a 14 year old girl was dragged from a vehicle by a Chattanooga Police Officer during a repossession attempt by “a representative of M&R Motors.”
A family has filed a lawsuit against the Chattanooga Police Department and a local car dealership over a June, 2018 incident that was caught on video and went viral on social media.
Attorneys for Avery Ann Gray claim her 14-year-old daughter was injured when a Chattanooga Police officer pulled her out of the driver’s seat.
Gray bought a car from M&R Motors three months prior to the incident, and claimed it had mechanical issues, and had tried to cancel her financial obligations for paying for the vehicle. But the suit claimed M&R motors refused, and said she needed to continue making her payments.
On June 25th, 2018, the suit claims Gray drove her car to downtown Chattanooga, and parked on the 600 block of Walnut Street, near the Hamilton County Courthouse.
It says Gray told her daughter to sit in the driver’s seat while she took care of other business.
The suit says it was then that a representative of M&R Motors arrived to repossess the car. But it claims that the company had no writ of repossession for the car.
The suit says a representative got police involved with the repossession, but says police never asked for the writ.
It goes on to say that an Officer Wright ordered Gray’s daughter out of the driver’s seat. Gray claims in the suit that her daughter slowly gathered her possessions in a way that police would not perceive her as a threat, but that Officer Wright grew impatient, began ordering her repeatedly to leave the vehicle, and ultimately grabbed her to take her out of the driver’s seat.
In response to the viral video, Chattanooga Police released Officer Wright’s body camera footage of the incident, which shows Officer Wright pulling the girl out of the car, and then shows other officers getting Gray involved. The clip below is a little over 20 minutes, and hides the identity of Gray’s 14-year-old daughter.
That body camera footage was also released with a statement from CPD, which says “The CPD Officer in the video was at that location because he was in the process of filing warrants on a party from another, unrelated incident. The officer approached other CPD officers who were conversing with a repossession agent about the 14-year-old who was seated behind the wheel of a running vehicle stopped in a handicap zone. The officer then approached the female and politely asked her to turn off the vehicle. The female did not comply with any of the multiple requests made by the officer. The officer determined at that time that an unlicensed, 14-year-old behind the wheel of a running vehicle in a heavily trafficked area of town created a significant concern for the safety of that juvenile, others in the vicinity, and the public at-large. Based on the juvenile’s continued lack of compliance and the officer’s increasing concern for public safety, the officer shut off the vehicle and removed the female from behind the wheel. This is all evident in the officer’s body worn camera video included in this release.”
The CPD release goes on to say “The Chattanooga Police Department reviewed the officer’s body worn camera in its entirety and the actions the officer took in this case. The department determined, based on that evidence and information, the officer followed proper protocol,” and quoted CPD Chief David Roddy, who said “The use of force used by the officer in this situation is in compliance with the Chattanooga Police Department’s Use of Force policy and training. Force used by officers can be controversial, but it is also needed in certain situations when safety of the individuals involved and the public at-large are at stake.”
But the lawsuit claims that as Gray’s daughter was being taken to be booked, her handcuffs were on too tight, and that they caused damage to her wrists. It claimed that an emergency room doctor later told Gray “that this kind of injury should never happen to a child.” The suit also claimed Gray’s daughter suffered emotional distress after the incident, and that it will be a long time before the true physical damage from the incident could be determined.
The suit does not specify an amount of damages sought.
Source: News9 ABC
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