Atlanta man sues police after cop allegedly broke his ankle

Another officer laughed as Tyler Griffin was on the ground in pain

Jun 22, 2020

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A Georgia man is suing the Atlanta Police Department for an April 2019 incident that allegedly left him with a broken ankle.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Tyler Griffin claimed officers Donald Vickers and Matthew Abad and the APD violated him on April 5, 2019. Griffin alleges that he was significantly injured after officers Vickers and Abad pulled him over.

On the night in question, Griffin became alarmed when he noticed he was being followed by an unmarked car. Because the officers didn’t even so much as flash their lights, he had no idea they were police and pulled over into a random driveway to see if the strange vehicle would pass him by.

While he was waiting, that is when the officers stopped and Abad approached Griffin’s vehicle with his service weapon drawn.

A confused Griffin was asked to get out the car, but when asked why he was being pulled over his question was ignored.

Per Abad’s body camera which captured part of the encounter on video, when Griffin got out, Abad put a hand on his shoulder and began questioning him. But when Griffin brushed Abud’s hand off his shoulder, even though the gesture was seemingly just a reflex, suddenly, officer Vickers reacted by running towards him at full force and tackled the man to the ground while he screamed out in pain.

“You don’t swipe my hand from me,” Abad shouted at Griffin as a reprimand.

Even as he continued to cry out in pain, the officers made Griffin stand up and walk.

“Oh God. Oh my God. Help me, please,” Griffin plead. “Take the pain away!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=47&v=RNtgB47qs3s&feature=emb_logo

As it turns out, that aggressive blow to the ground left him with a broken ankle. But that evening instead of helping him, the officers cackled and chastised him for acting like a “little girl.”

“We’re laughing because you fell pretty hard after pushing an officer, man. I find that funny,” Vickers explained to the injured man.

But despite that comment, the footage shows that Griffin didn’t push anyone, which is why his lawyer Jeb Butler believes the comment was the beginning of a cover-up by the officers once they realized they may have caused real damage.

Subsequently, Griffin underwent an invasive surgery in which a doctor had to install a plate and ten screws into his ankle.

“This was a police officer on a power trip with his buddies trying to cover it up afterward,” Butler said in a press release.

Even though the officers never performed a sobriety test, in the clip, Abad told Griffin he “stinks like alcohol” and charged him with DUI.

“I never wanted to be in this situation,” said Griffin. “I don’t like public attention. But I don’t want this to happen to anybody else, so I’m telling my story.”

Tyler Griffin was not fighting, running, or even talking back when police officers tackled him, shattered his ankle, and made him walk on the broken bone. Then they laughed at him as he screamed in pain and refused to call an ambulance.https://t.co/4HqAVwRFej pic.twitter.com/WYeWso4dHZ

— Butler Kahn (@Butler_Kahn) June 15, 2020