The mother of a man shot to death as he waited to pick up his younger brother from middle school has filed a federal lawsuit against deputies in Colorado.
Following a report about a “suspicious” person in the school parking lot, a deputy yanked Richard Ward, 32, from the backseat of his mother’s SUV and shot him three times in the chest outside Liberty Point International Middle School in Pueblo West, Colorado on Feb. 22, 2022, according to attorneys representing the lawsuit.
Ward is seen lying motionless on the ground as his mother and her boyfriend, who was in the vehicle’s driver’s seat, desperately ask if he’d been shot, police body cam footage, provided by Kristy Stamp Ward’s attorneys, show.
Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Charles McWhorter, who shot Ward, and Deputy Cassandra Gonzales, who was at the scene, stood by as Ward bled and didn’t provide him medical assistance, according to the attorneys from Killmer, Lane & Newman LLP law firm. He was pronounced dead a short time afterward.
“My heart is broken,” Kristy Ward Stamp said in a statement. “I have no words to explain this to Richard’s little brother. Our family has been ripped apart.”
She’s suing McWhorter and Gonzales — accusing them of illegally assaulting, shooting and killing her son — and Pueblo County, which she says is liable for the deputies’ actions, a complaint filed Feb. 21 shows.
Gayle Perez, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office, told McClatchy News the office can’t comment on pending litigation. McClatchy News also contacted a county official for comment and didn’t receive a response.
In October, an investigation by the Pueblo County District Attorney’s office determined McWhorter and Gonzales were justified in using force against Ward as they believed it was a potentially dangerous situation, according to a letter signed by District Attorney Jeff Chostner.
“Pueblo County refuses to hold Richard’s killers accountable, and the County has ignored repeated requests to remedy this tragic and egregious situation,” Darold Killmer, one the civil rights attorneys representing the family, said in a statement. “So we will turn to a jury to obtain the justice that Richard and his family deserves.”
What led up to the shooting?
The afternoon of Feb. 22, 2022, while waiting for his younger brother, Ward stepped outside of his mother’s white SUV stationed in the middle school parking lot for a quick walk, the complaint says.
While returning to his mother’s vehicle, he opened the door to another white SUV and got inside before realizing his mistake and apologizing to that SUV’s driver, according to the complaint.
According to the district attorney’s office’s overview of the incident, deputies were dispatched to the middle school over reports of a “suspicious” man, who may be potentially intoxicated, trying to open car doors.
A short time later, McWhorter arrived and approached Ward sitting in the back seat of his mother’s SUV, seizing his elbow, the complaint says. It noted that Ward asked the deputy to let go.
Then, Ward expressed to McWhorter that law enforcement made him anxious, saying he had previously experienced excessive police force, but went on to explain how he mistakenly opened another vehicle’s door and had apologized to the driver, according to the complaint.
Following Ward’s explanation, McWhorter is heard asking him if he’s under the influence of any substances, which Ward denies, according to body cam footage.
McWhorter then asks for Ward’s identification and if he has any weapons, the video shows. Ward searches his pockets, says he may have a pocket knife before pulling out a lighter and putting a pill in his mouth, according to the footage. This pill was his prescribed anxiety medication, the complaint says.
Ward is pulled out of the car and shot within seconds
Upon putting the pill in his mouth, the video shows McWhorter immediately pull Ward out of the car and to the ground while asking what the pill was before a brief physical struggle between them starts.
“Despite Defendant McWhorter’s sudden and bizarre initiation of a use of significant force against Mr. Ward when it was completely unjustified, Mr. Ward did not offer physical resistance as Defendant McWhorter manhandled him, and instead truthfully answered Defendant McWhorter’s question, repeatedly stating that he had put a pill in his mouth,” the complaint says, with Gonzales joining “in on the assault.”
The struggle ended when McWhorter shot Ward three times in the chest 20 seconds after pulling him out of the car, the complaint says.
Instead of tending to Ward’s wounds, McWhorter and Gonzales “stood and watched him bleed out as middle school students strolled by a few feet away,” his attorneys said.
In the district attorney’s letter, he says the deputies called on the radio to report the shots fired, saying “we need medical,” several seconds after the shooting.
In an interview after the incident, Gonzales said she was scared during the struggle and didn’t know if Ward was armed, according to the district attorney’s overview. In McWhorter’s interview, he said during the struggle he felt Ward “messing with his gun side” before Ward headbutted his nose. McWhorter also said he was concerned Ward would get a hold of his gun and worried Ward wanted to hurt him.
Three minutes after Ward was shot, first responders arrived and tried to provide him medical assistance before he was pronounced dead, the complaint says.
The complaint argues Ward was alive in the “immediate aftermath of the shooting” while the deputies stood by waiting for emergency responders.
Ward’s mother and boyfriend is arrested
Following the shooting, Kristy Stamp Ward and her boyfriend were taken into custody, brought to a sheriff’s office facility where they were detained and interrogated for two hours, the complaint says. Then they were released.
Additional deputies involved in apprehending them are also named as defendants, accusing them of unlawful arrest, in the complaint.
During the arrest and interrogation, Kristy Stamp Ward wasn’t told her son had died, according to the family’s attorneys.
Although she and her boyfriend weren’t charged with a crime, her car was impounded for months, according to the complaint and attorneys.
“Pueblo County Sheriffs responded to Richard’s calm cooperation with inexplicable violence, dragging a compliant, unarmed man from the backseat of his mother’s SUV and, within seconds, shooting him in the chest point blank,” Mari Newman, another civil rights attorney representing the family, said in a statement.
“And then, instead of admitting that they had made a terrible mistake, Pueblo Sheriffs tried to cover up their murder of an innocent civilian by arresting Richard’s mother, taking her phone, and impounding her SUV for months.”
District Attorney Chostner concluded that McWhorter and Gonzales had a reason to believe they were at risk of being killed or seriously injured during the struggle with Ward and criminal charges against the pair weren’t warranted.
Kristy Ward Stamp’s lawsuit is demanding a trial by jury and seeks an unspecified amount of damages for emotional distress, humiliation, pain and suffering and more over Ward’s death.
Eddy Ward, Ward’s brother, said in a statement that his family is “devastated” and that his brother didn’t “deserve such brutality.”