Larimer County sheriff, family release footage of man being Tased on Interstate 25

Body camera footage from the Larimer County Sheriff's Office deputy who deployed a Taser on a man fleeing from a traffic stop in the middle of Interstate 25 was released Wednesday following the conclusion of the department's internal investigation.

The edited footage was released by the sheriff's office along with a statement from Sheriff John Feyen explaining the case and announcing the conclusion of the internal investigation.

After a five-month Critical Incident Response Team investigation, 8th Judicial District Attorney Gordon McLaughlin announced in a decision letter last week that Deputy Lorenzo Lujan was within the bounds of the law in shocking 28-year-old Brent Thompson with a Taser as Thompson fled from a traffic stop across a dark portion of the northbound lanes of I-25 near the Mountain Vista exit in northeast Fort Collins the evening of Feb. 18. Thompson was immobile on the interstate when an oncoming car fatally struck him.

Feyen said the department's internal investigation has determined that Lujan's actions — including the use of a Taser — "were within our policies."

In the video statement, Feyen notes that investigators found a firearm and drug paraphernalia in Thompson's car after he was killed, and the coroner's report found he had "fentanyl, methamphetamine and other illegal narcotics in his system at the time of his death."

"Protecting our community demands split-second decisions and rapidly changing environments," Feyen said. "We train our deputies to take decisive action with the information they have available at that moment. Unfortunately, in some cases, this results in unintended consequences. I wish Mr. Thompson had chose to comply with deputies that night. I wish he'd sought treatment for his drug addiction, evidence of which was located in his system and in his vehicle."

But Thompson's family says the sheriff's office is unjustly shifting the blame for Thompson's death from their deputy onto Thompson.

"The family of Brent Thompson is appalled by the Larimer County Sheriff's failure to discipline or terminate the deputy responsible for the murder of Brent," the family said in a statement through their attorneys at Rathod Mohamedbhai LLC. "The Sheriff is more concerned with smearing the name of Brent based on information the deputy did not possess at the time of the murder rather than holding his deputies accountable. Blaming Brent for his death is callous and dishonest."

"The tasering of an individual in the middle of an interstate highway at night is criminal and reprehensible conduct and has no place in law enforcement," the family said in the statement.

The family does intend to file a civil lawsuit against the deputy involved and the sheriff's office, according to their attorney, Qusair Mohamedbhai. They are also calling on the Colorado Attorney General's Office to review the case.

Thompson's family released unredacted body camera footage through their attorney. The footage is graphic and might be disturbing to some viewers. Links to both the redacted and unredacted footage can be found at the end of this article.

Here's what can be observed in the edited body camera footage provided by the sheriff's office:

• Lujan pulls Thompson over on the northbound I-25 off-ramp at the Mountain Vista exit and tells him it was because he had expired vehicle registration.

• Thompson provides Lujan with a false name.

• Lujan goes back to his car and determines that Thompson gave him a false name and determines Thompson's license has been revoked.

• Lujan returns to Thompson's car and asks him to step out, and then confronts Thompson about using a false name and tells him he is under arrest. Thompson immediately runs across the off-ramp and down a steep grass embankment toward I-25.

• Lujan can be heard yelling "stop or you're going to get Tased," as he pulls out his Taser, struggling to keep up with Thompson down the embankment. Lujan catches up to Thompson as Thompson jumps and trips over the guardrail into the shoulder of the northbound side of I-25.

• Thompson gets up and continues running across the road. He is in the easternmost northbound lane when Lujan deploys his Taser, immobilizing him. A car can be seen traveling in the lane toward them in the video, and Lujan steps into the westernmost northbound lane.

The edited video from the sheriff's office cuts just before the car hits Thompson.

Lujan told CIRT investigators he did look for cars and after deploying his Taser realized the car traveling northbound toward them was "closer than expected," according to McLaughlin's decision letter. Investigators determined the car was traveling at about 70 mph.

In the video statement, Feyen explained that the sheriff's office trains using safety priorities, which is "standard across the nation that guides law enforcement decision making," prioritizing the safety of people involved in a situation, starting with victims, then bystanders, then first responders, then suspects.

"Unfortunately, Mr. Thompson's choices created a potentially no-win situation," Feyen said. "Simply letting him run away could have resulted in deadly consequences for travelers on the highway, and the deputy was forced to make a choice: Act and try to stop the suspect or stand by passively and just hope no innocent people got hurt."

In McLaughlin's review of the case, he stated that evidence showed Lujan "was acting in a way that would reduce risk” to Thompson and people driving on the interstate, but in hindsight “his belief with respect to other motorists appears to have been incorrect, as the deputy seems to have exacerbated an already dangerous situation by temporarily immobilizing Mr. Thompson in a roadway with oncoming traffic.”

McLaughlin suggested — in hindsight, which he said the deputy did not have — it may have been safer to let Thompson run and not pursue him onto the interstate.

McLaughlin also noted that the sheriff's office department policy on Taser use identifies several factors in which deputies should avoid using a Taser "unless the totality of the circumstances indicates that other available options reasonably appear ineffective or would present a greater danger," including whether an individual is somewhere or doing something that may result in a collateral injury, like if they are operating a vehicle or if they might fall from something and injure themselves that way.

“A commonsense interpretation of those policies would seem to prohibit incapacitating an individual in a high-speed roadway,” McLaughlin said, but neither the department’s policy nor Taser’s official training advice specifically mention roadway safety, likely because there is no record of an incident similar to this one occurring before. McLaughlin said he “encourages and expects” discussions about adding roadway safety in the sheriff's office Taser training moving forward.

In citing Thompson's apparent fentanyl use as a contributing factor in this case, Feyen called for more action against the issue in the community.

"Fentanyl is destroying lives and families in Northern Colorado, and this is just one more example," Feyen said. "We must continue this conversation, as a community, to stop the widespread and damaging effects of illicit drugs in Larimer County."

Feyen's video statement — which includes edited body camera footage that cuts immediately before Thompson is hit — can be viewed through a link on the Larimer County Sheriff's Office Facebook page, facebook.com/larimersheriff. This footage is graphic and may be upsetting to some viewers.

An unredacted version of the body camera footage has been publicly released by the attorney representing the Thompson family. This footage includes Thompson's death and footage of first responders attending to him. It is graphic and may be upsetting to some viewers, so discretion is advised. It can be found at rmlawyers.com/brent-thompson.

McLaughlin will host a virtual town hall to explain to process and results of the CIRT investigation on Monday, July 31, at 4 p.m. More information, including a link to join the virtual town hall can be found at larimer.gov/events/cirt-virtual-town-hall-2023-07-31. Attendees will have an opportunity to ask questions during the event, and questions can also be submitted in advance to 8thdist-da@co.larimer.co.us.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Larimer sheriff, family release footage of man being Tased on I-25