‘For the Love of God, Stop, Sir!’: Black Man Whose Arm Was Broken with ‘Loud Pop’ Sound During Arrest While Seeking Help for Medical Issue Gets Settlement from Oklahoma City Police
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A Black man who said he was disoriented from kidney failure when he went into a convenience store and acted unruly and was then unduly roughed up by the police who arrested him has reached a $70,000 settlement with Oklahoma City.
In his federal lawsuit, Jeffery Earle Lassiter, now 55, claimed that he was driving from Oklahoma City to Dallas in the wee hours of Aug. 9, 2021, when he became overheated and dehydrated as a result of kidney failure. His car, which had been involved in a collision a few days prior, had also overheated, he said, and he drove to a Love’s convenience store near the interstate to get some water.
“The dehydration had manifested itself as confusion and disorientation, and as he entered the convenience store trying to get something cold to drink, he stumbled and knocked over a water display,” the lawsuit said.
Lassiter claimed that when he tried to communicate his distress to store employees, they called 911 to report he was destroying their property.
Lassiter, who had “become belligerent and loud” upon entering the store, according to a store employee, was asked to leave, and then “became angry and threw his fountain drink” at a woman in the store, striking her in the chest, according to a police incident report.
Bodycam video shows Oklahoma City police Sgt. Nathan Cross arriving at the store, reported The Oklahoman. The 44-second video is muted until the 29-second mark.
Lassiter is outside the store, approaching Cross, who appears to motion with his hand for Lassiter to come over.
As he gets closer, Lassiter has his hands above his head. “Without provocation,” the complaint says, Cross takes him to the ground. When the sound is unmuted, Cross is heard telling Lassiter not to move away as he attempts to place handcuffs on him. He orders Lassiter to turn over on his stomach.
“I am not resisting,” Lassiter said.
“Yes, you are,” Cross said.
At this point, the lawsuit claims, Cross disengaged his body camera and began to attack Lassiter.
Cross “takes his left arm, holds it with one hand as if it were a piece of firewood, and takes his foot and stomps Plaintiff’s left arm as if breaking a piece of firewood. Cross then delivers severe body blows to Plaintiff in his back and side,” the complaint says.
Oklahoma City police Sgt. Will Hall’s bodycam video shows the officer arriving as Cross has Lassiter on the ground, lying on his stomach. Lassiter repeatedly said he wasn’t resisting.
“For the love of God, stop, sir! … Please help me,” Lassiter said as Cross handcuffed him and pulled him up to a standing position. The lawsuit claims the Hall bodycam footage clearly shows that Lassiter’s arm was broken by that point.
As he was being placed in a police vehicle, Lassiter gave his name and claimed to be retired from the U.S. Air Force. He said he wanted something to drink, and sugar.
“I was walking up to you to talk to you, to tell you what was going on,” he said.
Hall then transported Lassiter to a nearby medical center. His incident report states, “When we arrived at the hospital, [Lassiter] said he thought his arm was broken, I removed the handcuffs and [his] arm immediately fell limp and it was apparent that [his humerus] bone was broken.”
Hall noted that “use of force occurred” while Lassiter was being arrested by Cross, before he arrived on the scene.
Cross wrote in his police report that “while utilizing a wrist lock and arm bar I heard a loud pop come from (Lassiter’s) left arm.”
The lawsuit contends the excessive force used by officers Cross and Hall incident left Lassiter with a broken left arm, a fractured left hip and acute renal failure.
“Clearly the force was excessive,” the lawsuit states, noting that “all municipal charges resulting from the encounter were dismissed without prosecution.”
The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma in February of 2024, claimed that the police and Oklahoma City violated Lassiter’s rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments by using excessive force when he was unarmed, not fleeing or resisting, subdued, and in obvious need of medical attention.
The officers were deliberately indifferent to his serious medical needs, caused his injuries, and then made his injuries and condition worse by pinning down and handcuffing a dehydrated and confused man with an obviously broken arm, the lawsuit says.
Lassiter sought a trial to determine monetary damages in excess of $75,000 and an order to force the Oklahoma City Police Department to obtain adequate training and supervision in the use of force.
In its answer to the complaint filed in March of 2024, Oklahoma City denied that the officers violated Lassiter’s rights or caused his injuries.
The city said Lassiter’s “criminal acts” and “contributory negligence” were “the sole cause of any of his alleged injuries or damages,” and that the police department’s training on the use of force was constitutional and “has been repeatedly upheld by Courts in this District and by the 10th Circuit of Appeals.”
The city further asserted that it was exempt from liability under Oklahoma tort law, and that Lassiter’s lawsuit was “frivolous.”
In a memo to the Oklahoma mayor and city council on Dec. 31, 2024, municipal attorney Kenneth Jordan wrote that after conferring with the city council in a closed executive session about the case, followed by a settlement conference with plaintiffs, he recommended the city approve the agreed upon settlement amount of $70,000.
In a judgment filed with the court on February 6, the city agreed to the settlement with Lassiter without admitting liability.
The settlement comes amid recent community complaints about excessive use-of-force incidents involving Oklahoma City police, according to the Oklahoman.
In September, bodycam video appeared to show an Oklahoma City officer shoving a woman to the ground during a check on a noise complaint.
A misdemeanor assault and battery case against Rasaun Gordon, the officer, is in Oklahoma County District Court.
In October, an officer was seen on bodycam video slamming an elderly man to the ground following a minor vehicle collision in northwest Oklahoma City. The 71-year-old man suffered a neck fracture and brain bleed. The state attorney general intervened in the case and dismissed aggravated assault and battery charges against the officer in December.
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