Family sues El Paso over veteran’s death in custody, alleging excessive force and neglect

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — The family of an El Paso veteran who died in police custody two years ago is suing the city of El Paso.

The family of 36-year-old veteran Michael Charles Thompson announced Thursday morning that they would file a wrongful death lawsuit, alleging Thompson was “beaten, choked and repeatedly tasered up to five times … despite the fact that he committed no crime or threatened to harm himself or others.”

UA Lewis, a Houston attorney representing the family in the lawsuit, said:

This is one of the most blatant cases of medical indifference, following the unimaginable use of violence against someone who the defendants knew had not committed a crime and who they themselves claimed was in a mental crisis and needed to be transported to the emergency services, but they chose to attack him instead.

The announcement came on the second anniversary of Thompson’s death.

Thompson’s mother and daughter gathered outside the district court in downtown El Paso Thursday morning to announce the lawsuit while holding family photos of Thompson.

KFOX14/CBS4 spoke to the mother, who said Thompson was not a threat to anyone and just wanted help.

You shouldn’t lose your life asking for help. There were no guns or drugs or anything. It was a man asking for help.

Another relative described Thompson as a “struggling” but good man.

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The attorney provided KFOX14/CBS4 with a statement that appeared to come from an El Paso Police Department officer who responded to the incident that led to Thompson’s death.

In his statement, the EPPD officer said he responded to a welfare check at a 7-Eleven in northeast El Paso on June 27, 2022, at around 4 p.m.

According to the officer’s description of the incident, Thompson was “not in his right mind” and “very paranoid.”

He then describes how he decided to issue an “emergency arrest warrant” against Thompson because he believed Thompson posed a danger to himself and others.

As part of the process, the EPPD officer began to pat Thompson down and search for weapons, but Thompson pulled back and yelled:

He’s going to kill me.

In his statement, the officer then describes how he began to wrestle with Thompson in an attempt to subdue him.

At that point, the officer said, backup arrived, deployed a taser and, after further struggle, finally managed to handcuff Thompson and place him in the back seat of a patrol car.

The officer then said he called Emergence Health Network to find out which hospital they could take Thompson to when he noticed the other officers pulling Thompson out of the station so first responders could perform CPR.

According to attorney Lewis, officers neglected Thompson and left him unattended and restrained even though he showed signs of needing medical attention.

KFOX14/CBS4 obtained Thompson’s autopsy report, which rules his death a homicide and lists acute methamphetamine and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease as contributing factors.

Below is the full autopsy report:

KFOX14/CBS4 reached out to the city for comment, but they declined to comment due to pending litigation.

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