Woman trampled by mounted Houston police officer files suit
Without warning, a Houston police officer mounted on horseback recklessly charged into a woman when her back was turned at a peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstration in May, a new lawsuit alleges. The woman is still being treated for injuries sustained when she was knocked down. The officer remains on active duty.
The Houston Police Department and city of Houston are accused of negligence in the personal injury lawsuit filed Jan. 15 in Harris County by attorneys representing Houston resident Melissa Sanchez, court records show.
The incident happened four days after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on George Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes,
killing him and sparking nationwide protests. Streets filled with demonstrators calling for an end to police brutality and racial injustice. At a protest in downtown Houston, Sanchez stood and held a sign among a crowd of demonstrators on Travis Street near police headquarters.
In a video posted online and widely shared, an officer on horseback appears to plow into Sanchez from behind, knocking her down in the street beneath the horse's hooves. She sustained injuries to her neck, back and knee, said Marion Reilly, one of her attorneys. Sanchez is now seeking between $200,000 and $1 million in damages from police and the city, according to court records.
The lawsuit alleges that the officer “recklessly charged” into Sanchez without asking her to move or giving any notice, warning or announcement of his approach. The sound of a whistle can be heard in the video in the moments before Sanchez is struck.
Sanchez posed zero threat to herself, the officers or the surrounding public before she was knocked over, her attorneys allege in the suit. No HPD officer attempted to render aid or assist her in getting medical treatment, they said.
The incident caused Sanchez “severe pain suffering, mental anguish, emotional distress and personal injuries,” the suit claims.
Reilly, an attorney from Corpus Christi-based law firm Hilliard Martinez Gonzalez, said what happened to Sanchez was a “travesty.”
“There was no reason for that officer to direct his horse to literally run this young woman down, from behind, no less,” Reilly said. “She was trampled for her beliefs, not because she did anything wrong. This kind of excessive, unnecessary behavior by officers cannot be tolerated by American society.”
Sanchez is also represented by Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney representing Floyd's Houstonarea family, who called the incident “outrageous” and said it could have cost Sanchez her life.
“Contrast this with what we witnessed at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when we saw law enforcement essentially holding the hands of violent rioters, walking with them into the Senate chambers, and then politely asking them to leave,” Crump said. “Incredibly, violent insurrectionists are handled with respect and care by police, while peaceful, law-abiding Black citizens just exercising their First Amendment rights are maimed.”
An HPD spokesperson declined to comment on the pending Sanchez lawsuit or an investigation into the matter, but said the officer, Louis Gamez, remains on active duty.
“The city prefers not to comment on pending litigation. The lawsuit will run its course,” said Mary Benton, spokesperson for the Mayor's Office.
Following the viral video of the incident, Mayor Sylvester Turner tweeted an apology to Sanchez, saying she has the right to march and demonstrate peacefully and that the city would evaluate how to “keep that from happening again.”
“What happened with mounted patrol should not have happened and for that please accept my apology,” Turner tweeted.