Former Black Kansas City police detective run over by deputy, is suing as dashcam video released
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On Aug. 15, 2020, 35-year-old former Kansas City, Kansas, police detective Lionel Womack, who is Black, was pulled over while traveling through Kiowa County for an “alleged traffic violation.” The Associated Press reports that according to Womack, he was not speeding, nor was he under the influence of anything when a Kansas Highway Patrol officer flashed his lights. Womack says he pulled over. What happened next is the basis of a civil rights lawsuit Womack has filed against against Sheriff’s Deputy Jeremy Rodriguez in U.S. District Court in Kansas.
Womack told the AP that he left the police force at the beginning of August in order to pursue his own security business. He was driving back from California on Aug. 15 when he was pulled over on a rural country road in Kansas. It was late at night, and Womack says he “freaked out” when suddenly “three additional vehicles pulled up quickly and started to surround my car.” Womack says he took off, leading Kansas police on a high speed chase that ended with Womack running, shirtless and unarmed, through an empty field. As a dash cam video that has been recently released shows, a police SUV, driven by Sheriff’s Deputy Jeremy Rodriguez, comes upon Womack and turns into Womack, running him over.
The only good news is that Womack is alive, though he says he sustained serious injuries to his back, his pelvis, and both legs. Womack is still in jail four months later on “felony charges of attempting to elude a law enforcement officer by engaging in reckless driving and interference with a law enforcement officer.” He also seems to have had a slew of misdemeanor charges—including improper signaling and driving without headlights—added to his docket. Meanwhile, nothing seems to have happened to censure Deputy Rodriguez.
Womack’s wife, Zee, is also a Kansas Police officer—the two met on the force more than 10 years ago. She told the news that she couldn’t believe what her husband was telling her when he said that the police had intentionally run him over. She says she has watched dash cam video over and over again. “I’m a police officer, we are pro-police, so you always want to believe that we would do the right thing. I just couldn’t find a justification based on what I saw.”
Zee says her husband told her he had been afraid. Specifically, after being pulled over, Womack says her husband noticed the other cars pulling up behind him, “both blacked out,” and felt that something wasn’t right. He told his wife that he felt he needed “to get to somewhere where there are people, there are cameras, witnesses, lights, something.”
Lionel Womack’s wife is not the only police officer in the family. His mother is a police officer, his stepfather is a retired police sergeant from Kansas City, and both of his aunts are police dispatchers.
Attorney Michael Kuckelman has brought the case against the deputy on behalf of Womack. He told the AP that the dash cam video is easily the most transparent defense of Womack, and also a damnation of Rodriguez’s actions. “It is impossible to watch a video of a deputy driving his truck over Mr. Womack without feeling sick. There was nowhere for Mr. Womack to go. It was an open field, and he was trapped, yet the deputy drove his truck over him anyway.”
The dash cam comes from inside of a vehicle pursuing Womack and shows an unarmed man running through a dark field at night, with police in pick-up trucks following him. Their headlights have him illuminated and he is going nowhere. The vehicle driven by Rodriquez pulls up directly behind Womack, turns to come alongside Womack, and then quickly swerves and runs the large front wheel over Womack. The office inside of the vehicle with the dash cam can be heard exclaiming “Holy shit!” as this shocking thing takes place.
Kiowa County Sheriff Chris Tedder did not respond to calls from the AP to talk about the lawsuit, which alleges, amongst other things, that Kuckelman has “urged Tedder in person and in letters to fire Rodriguez, and the sheriff has refused. Rodriguez remains on patrol. Kuckelman also wants Rodriguez charged criminally and has accused the sheriff of engaging in a coverup of the deputy’s conduct.”
The dash cam video was released to the public for the first time on Thursday. According to Womack’s attorney, his client has remained in jail based on a warrant out of Oklahoma. According to Oklahoma records, Womack sped through their territory a few days before this incident but was able to “elude” them.
Lionel told the AP that he believes most police officers are good people. “But we have to hold law enforcement accountable when they cross the line.”
Warning: The video is short, disturbing, and very graphic.
The longer AP story.