KCK police slammed handcuffed man to ground after report of gun at hotel: Lawsuit
In a federal lawsuit filed Thursday, a man says Kansas City, Kansas, police officers slammed him to the ground while he was handcuffed during an encounter at a local hotel two years ago.
William Dickerson, who is Black, filed the lawsuit in U.S. Court for the District of Kansas.
According to the lawsuit, Dickerson on June 10, 2021, was standing in the parking lot of a Hampton Inn at The Legends, where hotel guests were grilling food and socializing.
A woman at the hotel said the police had been called after a person with a gun had been reported. Dickerson said no one was carrying a gun.
Officers with the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department arrived and “aggressively began putting their hands on Plaintiff and placed him in handcuffs,” the lawsuit said.
They asked if he had a baseball bat or a gun and Dickerson replied that he did not. He was forced to sit on the curb and later told the officers that he needed to go to the bathroom. They ignored him and eventually he urinated on himself.
As he was standing, one of the officers picked him and and slammed him to the ground, the lawsuit alleged. The officer pushed his face onto the concrete, cutting his lip and chipping his tooth, the lawsuit said.
Dickerson was screaming from pain and for help.
One of the officers again slammed him against the concrete, the lawsuit said. Dickerson felt his mouth begin to bleed and drifted in and out of consciousness. He fully awoke at Providence Medical Center, where he was hospitalized for two days.
In the lawsuit, Dickerson said he was not acting threatening and the officers did not have probable cause to arrest him.
It also alleges that the police department has engaged in a pattern of excessive force, particularly against African Americans.
Community members for years have been calling for accountability following fatal police shootings, lawsuits and the investigation into former detective Roger Golubski, who was indicted last year for allegedly using his position to rape women and protect sex traffickers.
The lawsuit names as defendants the Unified Government of Wyandotte County, three unidentified officers and Police Chief Karl Oakman, who was named head of the department in May 2021.
It goes on to list several counts including excessive force, false arrest and failure to intervene.
The Unified Government and the police department said they would not comment on any pending litigation. Nancy Chartrand, a spokeswoman for KCKPD, noted that Oakman was sworn in four days after Dickerson’s arrest.
