Florida man sues after being paralyzed by officer who mistook gun for Taser
A Florida man who was paralyzed when a police officer shot him after mistaking his handgun for his stun gun filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the city of Hollywood, the officer and others, saying: “My life got destroyed.”
Michael Ortiz is seeking unspecified millions of dollars from Hollywood, Florida, and Henry Andrews, 50, the officer who also faces a misdemeanor charge for the 2021 shooting, one of several over the last 20 years in which officers have said they mistook their gun for their Taser. The federal civil rights lawsuit also names officers Dionte Roots and Jhonny Jimenez, who were subduing Ortiz when Andrews shot him.
Ortiz told reporters not only had his life been destroyed but so has his mother’s as she has to change his diapers and provide other care.
He called 911 for help while suffering from a mental health crisis but was shot while handcuffed on the ground.
“She is treating me like I am six months old,” said Ortiz, 43, who is paralyzed from the chest down and uses a wheelchair. He owes $3m in medical costs and will need lifetime care.
The Florida-based civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Ortiz with attorney Hunter Shkolnik, said it was an “injustice” that Andrews has been charged with only a misdemeanor.
“Michael Ortiz needed a helping hand and what he got was a bullet to the back,” Crump said.
Crump represents victims of alleged police misconduct including the families of Michael Brown, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, Black Americans killed by officers in high-profile cases.
“There should have been greater accountability for the officer,” Crump said.
Hollywood officials declined comment. The attorney Jeremy Kroll, who represents Andrews in the misdemeanor culpable negligence case, said another lawyer will be hired for the Ortiz lawsuit.
“In responding to a difficult and chaotic situation, Officer Andrews intended to deploy his Taser and mistakenly discharged his firearm. There was absolutely no intent to harm in this case. He and his family continue to have Mr Ortiz in their thoughts and prayers,” Kroll said.
It could not be determined if Roots and Jimenez had attorneys who could comment. They have not been charged criminally.
Ortiz called 911 on 3 July 2021, telling operators he was experiencing a mental health crisis while house-sitting his mother’s apartment and his dog was missing. He told them he had used marijuana and was having chest pains. The operators noted that he sounded delusional and suicidal.
Ortiz took a shower to calm down. When paramedics arrived, he refused to come outside so they called for police assistance. Paramedics say Ortiz came into a hallway nude and became combative, threatening suicide. They say they were stopping him from jumping from a sixth-floor balcony when Roots and Jimenez arrived.
Security video has not been released but the city has shown it to Shkolnik. He said Roots used his Taser to subdue Ortiz, who was then handcuffed behind his back and placed naked on the floor. He was still struggling but was not posing any danger to himself or the officers if they had just moved back and let him calm down, Shkolnik said.
The elevator opened and Andrews stepped out. Roots tried to use his
Taser on Ortiz again but it didn’t discharge.
In a court filing in his misdemeanor case, Andrews, an officer for more than 20 years, said he reached for his Taser but instead grabbed his gun, firing one shot into Ortiz’s back. That happened about 10 seconds after the elevator door opened, Shkolnik said.
“I genuinely believed I had grabbed and was discharging my Taser,” Andrews wrote.
Andrews’ Taser, like most, was shaped like a handgun and had a similar grip and trigger. But it was also bright yellow instead of black, a detail supposed to serve as a visual warning to an officer in the heat of the moment.
Officers are trained to keep their firearm on their strong side and their stun gun on the opposite hip. Andrews did that.
Kroll said in the filing that while Andrews’ conduct may have been civilly negligent, it was not criminal and asked that the charge be dismissed. The judge has not ruled.
There have been other cases where officers say they mistook their gun for their stun gun and shot a suspect, sometimes fatally. Criminal charges are sometimes pursued but officers have broad immunity when dealing with potentially dangerous suspects.
In 2021, a Minnesota officer was found guilty of manslaughter in such a case. That also happened after a 2015 shooting in Oklahoma. In 2009, a fatal shooting at an Oakland, California, transit station became the subject of a 2013 movie, Fruitvale Station. That officer was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.