An Arapahoe County man has sued a Clear Creek County deputy claiming the officer didn’t have a legal reason to shoot him in the neck, which rendered him a quadriplegic.
Cody William Cox, 37, sued deputy Don Wilson, accusing him of excessive force in , according to the lawsuit filed by attorney James Scherer.
Cox seeks unspecified compensatory damages, according to the lawsuit.
Clear Creek County Undersheriff Bruce Snelling said he can’t comment on an ongoing lawsuit.
Sheriff’s officials have said that because the suspected drunken driver was trying to elude Wilson in a “slow speed” chase on westbound Interstate 70 near Empire. The deputy shot Cox after he continued ramming cars in an attempt to get away, officials said.
But the lawsuit claims Cox had either stopped his car or the car was almost stopped on the left shoulder of the highway a foot or less from the car in front of him when Wilson shot him through the passenger-side window, severing his spine.
Cox acknowledges that he was driving erratically.
He claims Wilson stopped his patrol vehicle three feet to the right of his car and ordered Cox to roll his window down. Cox obeyed, and Wilson climbed out of his vehicle and ordered Cox to turn the car off, but before he could do so, Wilson “immediately” shot him in the neck, the lawsuit says.
Cox had not been resisting and had not been a threat to anyone, his lawsuit says.
“It would have been clear to a reasonable officer that the application of deadly force on the plaintiff was unlawful in the situation that the defendant confronted,” the court document says.
