'I Really Feared For My Life': Civil Rights Lawsuit Filed Against LASD After Traffic Stop Ends In Beating
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Christopher Bailey was driving home from work just after 2 a.m. on May 4, 2020 when he was pulled over for allegedly straddling the lanes along Prairie Avenue in Inglewood.
The 37-year-old, who works for a company that sorts mail for the U.S. Postal Service, pulled over. His attorney, Toni Jaramilla, said he complied when deputies asked him to get out of his vehicle.
"And it was at that point that the deputy started to beat him," she said. "They claimed that he was resisting arrest."
Jaramilla said Bailey never resisted and was unarmed during the assault, which started with the two deputies that initially pulled him over. She said a total of eight deputies were involved by the time Bailey was taken to the hospital, seven of whom she said injured him.
"I was screaming out," Bailey said. "I wanted to live. I really feared for my life. I thought I was going to die.
Two bystanders shot cell phone video of the aftermath that showed Bailey being loaded into an ambulance, his face visibly bruised and bloodied.
"He had taser burns to his body near his groin area, he was placed in two chokeholds and he was pummeled to the face," Jaramilla said. "He's got lifetime injuries, he's unable to see in his left eye."
"I have multiple surgeries coming up," Bailey said. "I have trauma, I'm still scarred from these actions."
Bailey's attorneys have filed a civil rights lawsuit alleging excessive force and have called on authorities to hold the sheriff's department and the deputies involved accountable.
"This was just a beat down," Jaramilla said. "This was a gang-like beat down of a Black citizen."
"I really can't put into words how I feel, and what I've been going through," Bailey said. "This is absolutely the worst beating unjustly that I have received by these deputies."
LADS said any use of force incident that results in injury was unfortunate, but that the department could not comment further on Bailey's case due to the pending litigation.