Tim McCoy, his sister Alissa King, and her boyfriend, Kenneth Kennedy, had simply parked their silver Hyundai Sonata within the storage on the Fremont Avenue Expertise in Las Vegas on the night of Nov. 11, 2023, with plans to have dinner at a restaurant and stroll across the well-liked pedestrian mall.
Once they exited the elevator on the floor flooring, the three Black Las Vegas residents had been accosted by a number of metropolis marshals.
“They approached me, very hostile, finger in my face, [saying] ‘What are you doing right here?’ ‘What occurred again there?’ ‘Why did you make these hand gestures?’” recalled McCoy to KTNV. “I used to be very confused. … I’m like, ‘What hand gestures are you referring to?”
The Las Vegas Metropolis Marshals had been keen to seek out the driving force of a black Dodge Durango who had additionally simply entered the storage after allegedly utilizing his proper hand to make a finger gun and simulate capturing Officer Jorge Caloca, who was in his marked patrol automotive, in keeping with the incident report he later filed. That suspect was Black with lengthy locs.
After being aggressively questioned by the officers and telling them they knew nothing about it, the trio tried to maneuver on. McCoy walked away, as he was watching a soccer recreation on his cellphone and thought the interplay was over, in keeping with the federal lawsuit the three filed earlier this yr, obtained by Atlanta Black Star.
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As he did so, a number of officers tackled McCoy from behind, violently slamming him on the concrete, ripping out a number of of his locs, with their firearms and Tasers drawn. One pinned him whereas placing a knee on his hair, and one other cuffed him.
“It made me really feel like an animal,” McCoy later stated. His and King’s aunt was the chief of police in Cleveland, they usually produce other household within the army, the grievance says, and have at all times revered legislation enforcement.
“My brother did nothing fallacious! We simply acquired right here!” screamed King, who was near her brother and had begun recording on her cellphone, reveals video obtained by KTNV, together with a marshal’s physique digicam video that the native information station used to create a composite video account of the incident.
“I’ll tase!” stated a marshal.
“Y’all are being racist!” yelled Kennedy.
McCoy was then taken in handcuffs to Las Vegas Boulevard, the place the patrol automotive was parked, and made to face as onlookers watched. King and Kennedy adopted, protesting to the police that they’d wrongly battered and detained McCoy, and saved asking them what automotive the suspect drove.
“It doesn’t matter,” Caloca stated. “You wanna go to jail, too?”
“You don’t know who did it!” stated Kennedy.
“He’s nonetheless going to jail, regardless,” stated Caloca.
“Oh, as a result of he’s a Black man! And he was simply the primary one you noticed, huh?” stated Kennedy, including, “It might have been me! It might have been anyone!”
“That’s all you guys do! You play the race card! stated Marshal Sergio Guzman. “It’s not about that … It’s about committing crimes.”
Guzman is presently going through two different civil lawsuits by Nevada residents alleging extreme drive, illegal detention and assault throughout visitors stops.
Within the lawsuit filed in April by a Black man named Lance Downes-Covington, town worker accused Guzman of pulling him over in his neighborhood for allegedly operating a cease signal earlier than threatening him with a gun and taser, then slamming him to the bottom and arresting him on false fees that had been ultimately dismissed.
The present lawsuit notes that Caloca, Guzman and different officers concerned have additionally had a variety of complaints filed towards them for extreme drive and different misconduct whereas on obligation.
The grievance says Kennedy continued arguing with the officers, who “for no cause” tackled him, slammed him on the concrete and ripped out his hair, placing a knee in his again and cuffing him.
“He got here at me,” Guzman could be heard telling different marshals on the scene in police video. “He charged at me after which we landed, and he landed proper on me.”
Physique digicam footage reveals Guzman grabbing Kennedy’s hand, which he was holding a mobile phone with, and taking him down together with different marshals, KTNV reported, noting that at no level did Kennedy cost Guzman.
The 2 males had been arrested and brought to Clark County Detention Heart and imprisoned primarily based on the false allegations of the officers, the lawsuit says.
Caloca claimed McCoy had impartial data in regards to the “gun hand indicators” in his case report, however later retracted that assertion, writing, “It’s potential one other officer talked about the gun gesture to [McCoy].”
McCoy was charged with obstructing a police officer that night time, and Kennedy was charged with battery on a police officer a month later. Kennedy spent an evening in jail. The fees towards each had been dismissed a number of months later in 2024.
Their lawyer, George Robinson, stated he confirmed prosecutors all the movies and defined the “misrepresentations” police made of their experiences to be able to get them to dismiss the case.
That included surveillance video from the parking storage displaying two dreadlocked Black males, one who was the driving force of the Black Dodge Durango, exiting the identical elevator simply previous to McCoy, Kennedy, and King. These males, one sporting a brightly coloured sweater, weren’t stopped or questioned by police, the lawsuit says.
“It’s insupportable,” Robinson stated of the unlawful ways utilized by the officers. “It in all probability occurred to my purchasers as a result of they had been Black, however actually, in the event that they’re in these aggressive moods they usually’re performing like bullies, like they did on this case, the citizenry simply must beware.”
Noting the a number of lawsuits towards the defendants alleging constitutional violations involving violence, he stated, “they’re simply thuggish bullies.”
McCoy, Kennedy, and King accuse town of Las Vegas and 6 metropolis marshals, together with Caloca and Guzman, of illegal arrest, false imprisonment, assault and battery, and intentional infliction of emotional misery.
They search a jury trial to find out compensatory, particular and punitive damages in extra of $225,000, and to cowl their authorized prices.
Of their movement to dismiss the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Courtroom in Nevada on Sept. 11, the six officers argued that the grievance “solely provides generalities and catchall allegations” towards them, alleging that every marshal used extreme drive upon the plaintiffs, however “at no level does the pleading establish which Marshal did what to whom.”
“The sweeping allegations fail to place every Marshall on discover of how that Marshall allegedly violated a constitutional proper,” the movement says. “With out this data every Marshal should speculate as to how you can supply a protection.” It additional asserts that the grievance’s failure to establish particular violations by particular marshals whereas counting on its “’staff effort’ allegation” ought to “go unrewarded.”
Las Vegas Mayor Shelley Berkley advised WTNV that she’s conscious of the a number of lawsuits towards metropolis marshals and stated, “I feel they’re frivolous, and I hope they’re dismissed as a result of I feel our marshals do an excellent job, they work arduous, they usually put their lives on the road each single day.”
Decide Maximiliano D. Couvillier III has not but dominated on the movement to dismiss. In a earlier response to town’s earlier movement to dismiss the case, the plaintiffs argued that discovery had not but begun and that asking for such specificity within the allegations was untimely.
In response to the courtroom docket, discovery is now attributable to be accomplished on Dec. 4, and a proposed joint pretrial movement is due on Feb. 6, 2026.
