A federal judge this month dismissed a lawsuit alleging a Colorado Springs police officer used excessive force on a man who was shot with a Taser, fell and broke his neck in May 2022.
The man, Jacob Root, sued officer Robert Comstock two years after the incident in which Root ran from police after he was spotted inside a stolen car.
Comstock shot Root with the Taser without first giving a verbal warning as Root was running. Root fell head-first down a slope, across a sidewalk and onto a roadway. His attorneys wrote in their May 2024 complaint that Root’s arms and legs were paralyzed as a result.
“Defendant Comstock’s unjustified, violent use of force and seizure of Mr. Root caused Mr. Root to fall, breaking his neck, resulting in his quadriplegia,” they wrote. “Mr. Root experienced great physical pain, injury, terror and was exposed to great risk of death.”
Root’s attorneys also alleged the Colorado Springs Police Department had “a custom and practice of using and ratifying excessive force,” criticizing its decision not to punish Comstock and citing large settlements awarded after the officer-involved shooting of De’Von Bailey, the beating of Dalvin Gadson and other incidents involving the department.
Root sued Comstock and the city for $100 million. On March 5, U.S. District Judge Daniel Domenico ordered the case be dismissed, writing that Comstock’s use of a Taser was justified, given how Root was running toward a busy street and was suspected of stealing a car and using it to strike a police vehicle while evading officers earlier in the day.
“No one disputes the tragedy that occurred,” Domenico wrote. “But that devastating outcome does not factor into the analysis which must focus on what the officer knew before the decision to use force.”
The judge also wrote that Comstock would be entitled to qualified immunity regardless and described Root’s allegations against the city as “conclusory.”
“The amended complaint fails to identify any policy that condones excessive force, and it fails to allege the city’s actual excessive force or Taser policies are unconstitutional,” he wrote.
