Colorado Springs girl, 17, pepper sprayed and handcuffed amid panic attack, lawsuit says

A 17-year-old Colorado Springs girl was pepper sprayed, handcuffed and put in the back of a police car as she was having a panic attack, a newly-filed lawsuit claims.

Body worn camera video from the Colorado Springs Police Department shows what happened two years ago to Amara Keens-Dumas. Her attorney claims she was having an apparent panic attack after a verbal argument with her boyfriend.

"She needed help and instead, she was handcuffed, put into the back of the police car, all the while, begging for them to give her her cell phone so she could call her mom," her attorney, David Lane, of Denver-based Killmer, Lane & Newman, LLP, said. "Instead, the attached video shows the police pepper spraying her while helpless and handcuffed in the back of a police car."

Lane provided video of the incident, which appears to include snippets of police officers' bodyworn camera footage and witness cell phone video. Video may help corroborate the claims. That video is posted at the top of this webpage.

Keens-Dumas, 19, was 17 at the time of the incident. She was sitting on the street, crying, in a state of emotional distress, the lawsuit states, when Officers Ryan Yoshimiya and Brianna Ragsdale questioned her and ordered her to calm down and sit. Yoshimiya can be heard on camera saying he's taking Keens-Dumas to the hospital when things escalate.

Ragsdale handcuffed Keens-Dumas and forced her onto the ground and then into the back of a police car, the lawsuit claims. 

"Get the [expletive] off me," she shouts multiple times to the officers while handcuffed, witness video shows. That video shows a brief physical struggle and in another video, one officer says Keens-Dumas tried to kick him. Bodycam footage of the struggle provided by Lane is dark and difficult to see what's happening.

A witness begs officers to call emergency medical services as Keens-Dumas sits in the back of the police car.

Video shows Keens-Dumas struggling to breathe, informing the officers that she's a minor, a rape victim, that she's having a panic attack and demanding her phone so she can call her mother.

Sgt. Gregory Wilhelmi arrives on scene and orders the officers to pepper spray Keens-Dumas, who's still handcuffed in the back of the police car. He then twice sprays her, himself. Then he and Yoshimiya close the car doors, "trapping Amara in the burning gas," Lane said.

A few minutes later, Yoshimiya asks another officer to crack the window because of the pepper spray.

Robert Tornabene, a spokesman for the Colorado Springs Police Department, said the department can't comment on the case.

"As this is a matter that has not been adjudicated, we are unable to provide a comment on pending litigation," he said in an email statement.

Attorneys for Keens-Dumas are seeking a jury trial in the suit, monetary damages, a formal written apology from each officer involved, policy changes, mandatory training to avoid similar encounters in the future, disciplinary action against the officers, attorney fees and costs, among other things.