Texas Police Were Looking For Teen Suspects But They Instead Detained A Black Couple In Their 50s And 60s At Gunpoint, Lawsuit Says

A Black elder­ly cou­ple has filed a law­suit against a Texas police depart­ment after they said police vio­lent­ly arrest­ed them at gun­point while search­ing for teenage sus­pects. Attorneys for 67-year-old Michael Lewis and his girl­friend, 57-year-old Regina Armstead, said the Rosenberg Police Department used exces­sive force dur­ing the November 2020 arrest. “What they went through was incred­i­bly demean­ing and dehu­man­iz­ing and uncon­sti­tu­tion­al,” attor­ney Lauren Bonds told Insider. The law­suit said that five RPD offi­cers were search­ing for a group of Black teenagers who were sus­pect­ed of bran­dish­ing weapons and assault when they pulled over Lewis and Armstead. 

A Black elder­ly cou­ple has filed a law­suit against a Texas police depart­ment after they said police vio­lent­ly arrest­ed them at gun­point while search­ing for teenage sus­pects. Attorneys for 67-year-old Michael Lewis and his girl­friend, 57-year-old Regina Armstead, said the Rosenberg Police Department used exces­sive force dur­ing the November 2020 arrest. “What they went through was incred­i­bly demean­ing and dehu­man­iz­ing and uncon­sti­tu­tion­al,” attor­ney Lauren Bonds told Insider. The law­suit said that five RPD offi­cers were search­ing for a group of Black teenagers who were sus­pect­ed of bran­dish­ing weapons and assault when they pulled over Lewis and Armstead. 

We both feared for our lives’

After Armstead was placed in the back of a police vehi­cle, “four armed offi­cers — includ­ing one hold­ing an assault rifle — then ordered Mr. Lewis out of the vehi­cle and told him to get on the ground,” the law­suit said. “I was pray­ing to God that the guns did­n’t go off on us because when you point guns at some­body like that, you nev­er know,” Lewis told Insider. The offi­cers cuffed Lewis despite his med­ical objec­tions and placed him in a sep­a­rate police car while they searched Armstead’s vehi­cle and con­fis­cat­ed her cell phone with­out expla­na­tion, said the law­suit, which accus­es RPD of ille­gal search and seizure, unlaw­ful deten­tion, and false arrest. “That was real scary. I tell you, it real­ly was. I feared for my life. I real­ly did, and Regina too,” Lewis said. “We both feared for our lives. Because, like I said, a gun could have went off.”

The law­suit said that after offi­cers found “no weapons, no con­tra­band, and no oth­er evi­dence of ille­gal activ­i­ty” in Armstead’s vehi­cle, she and Lewis were uncuffed. Armstead asked why they had been stopped and searched, and an offi­cer said they were search­ing for teenage sus­pects, the law­suit said. Armstead lat­er real­ized she did not have her cell phone or her keys, the law­suit said. They returned to the scene to col­lect Armstead’s phone from an offi­cer and dis­cov­ered their key fob, which had been tossed out the win­dow at police instruc­tion, was crushed. RPD said they would reim­burse Armstead for the key fob, but they did not, the law­suit said. Both Armstead and Lewis “felt fright­ened, humil­i­at­ed, embar­rassed, and per­se­cut­ed for being Black, and suf­fered severe men­tal anguish from the arrest and from being detained,” said the law­suit, which claims offi­cers vio­lat­ed the Fourth Amendment and the Americans With Disabilities Act. “As a result of the hand­cuff­ing dur­ing his arrest, Mr. Lewis’s med­ical device in his wrist mal­func­tioned. This result­ed in three sep­a­rate med­ical pro­ce­dures to replace his fis­tu­la. These pro­ce­dures caused pro­longed pain and suf­fer­ing to Mr. Lewis,” the law­suit said. Bonds, Lewis and Armstead’s attor­ney, said she hopes “to see if we can get them some account­abil­i­ty and jus­tice.” A spokesper­son for RPD did not imme­di­ate­ly respond to Insider’s request for comment.
(This sto­ry orig­i­nat­ed @ Insider​.com)