“Let’s start a riot,” one Denver cop posted to social media, along with a photo of officers in riot gear.
“If anyone moves, light ‘em up,” said another, according to a legal complaint filed against the Denver Police Department.
“If you wanted to breathe, you should have stayed home tonight,” an officer told a person having an asthma attack after being sprayed with tear gas.
Five years ago, as COVID-19 ravaged the country, thousands of protesters took to the streets to decry the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Elijah McClain, Tony McDade and many other Black people nationwide.
Lawsuits filed in the wake of the 2020 George Floyd demonstrations tell the story of how officers used violence against largely peaceful protesters, lawyers, medics, bystanders and journalists, hitting crowds with projectiles, pepper spray, tear gas and batons.
People suffered a swath of health problems from the police violence: difficulty breathing and burns on their skin, lost eyes, brain injuries, fractured skulls and bones, a ruptured testicle and a slew of psychological issues, from post-traumatic stress disorder to anxiety and nightmares.
Over the past five years, cities scrambled to settle the cases and avoid losses in court by paying out millions in settlements — $18.3 million in Denver and $1.4 million in Aurora. Meanwhile, the Denver and Aurora police departments enacted reforms.
Not every lawsuit has been settled. Some cases continue to wind through the courts.
Epps, et al. v. City and County of Denver, et al. is an ongoing case challenging the city’s use of “less lethal” weapons against protesters. A jury awarded the plaintiffs $14 million, but the city is currently appealing the decision. It is not counted in the $18 million-plus Denver has already paid out.
The Denver City Attorney’s Office declined to comment on that case or its strategy in settling so many others.
“Denver Police made a number of changes – both proactively and in response to recommendations – following the George Floyd protests,” a department spokesperson wrote Denverite.
Those changes included:
- Implementing new policies about when the department uses “less-than-lethal munitions” and tracking their use;
- Creating better processes for documenting the use of force during protests;
- Ensuring officers use both body-worn cameras and place identification on their protective gear;
- Improving how dispersal orders are given to crowds;
- And addressing concerns about the use of excessive force by other law enforcement agencies that partnered with Denver for the protests.
“We recognize there is still work to be done and we will continue to focus our efforts on implementing changes to improve upon existing policies, training, and procedures,” the department wrote in response to an investigation from the Office of the Independent Monitor.
Aurora declined to comment on the settlements but also has enacted some reforms.
“The city of Aurora and Aurora Police Department (APD) have implemented several changes in the past 5 years, including ongoing compliance and progress outlined in its independent consent decree,” a city spokesperson wrote. “The department continues to review and update its policies, procedures and training, and in February 2024, APD launched its online transparency portal, which provides agency demographics, crime statistics and use of force data.”
To understand the experience of the people in the demonstrations, Denverite reviewed the complaints tied to settlements in Aurora and Denver.
The largest settlement
Denver settlement amount: $4.72 million
Aurora settlement amount: $500,000 (to Sara Fitouri)
This class-action lawsuit resulted in the largest settlement from the city of Denver. The complaint alleges speech was repressed through police violence and that people’s First, Fourth and Fourteenth amendment rights were violated.
Mayor Michael Hancock declared an “emergency” without sufficient justification, the complaint alleges, then used the state of emergency to justify mass attacks on thousands of protesters.
Cops dangled off of trucks, shooting rubber bullets rapidfire into the crowd, the complaint alleges. Tear gas canisters were chucked at the crowd. Police used beanbag shotguns and rubber-ball grenades, sometimes hitting heads and spines.
“Many people were hit with projectiles and thousands inhaled tear gas or suffered pain and burning in their eyes, nose, mouth and throat from pepper balls and tear gas used by the officers,” the lawsuit alleges.
Officers kettled nonviolent protesters into tight spaces, then shot less-lethal weapons at the trapped protesters.
“Kettling leads to the unlawful seizure of people without a reasonable basis, creates panic, elevates tensions, and chills speech,” the claim stated.
Dozens of attacks
Denver settlement amount: $4,720,000
The dozens of plaintiffs in this case were injured during the demonstrations. Some were participating, while others were simply observing or documenting the actions.
Police threw tear gas canisters at one plaintiff, drenching her in toxic gas. Others were bruised, bloodied, temporarily blinded, knocked unconscious and terrorized, the complaint said. Their skin burned for days after the attack. Many faced nightmares, insomnia and panic attacks in the months after the police assault.
“The injuries and damages caused to Plaintiffs were caused both by the individual unconstitutional actions of the uniformed officers, and by the customs, policies, practices, and lack of proper training and supervision of the City,” the complaint alleged.
Blinded after work
Denver settlement amount: $2,300,000
Jax Feldmann had been at work at a restaurant, crafting a menu with colleagues. Walking back to his car, he saw police hanging off a vehicle. Officers were firing less-lethal munitions at demonstrators who were running away.
Feldmann lifted his hands and said, “We’re all Americans.”
The answer: Officer Diego Archuleta — who hadn’t turned on his body-worn camera, breaking department policy — shot Feldmann directly in the eye with a pepper ball, the complaint alleges.
“The shot hit Plaintiff directly in the tissue of his eyeball, and the globe of his eye exploded immediately,” the complaint states.
He was permanently blinded in that eye.
Gassed, shot and kettled
Denver settlement amount: $2,500,000
Aurora settlement amount: $100,000
Thirteen plaintiffs filed a sweeping complaint about the crowd control tactics of the Denver Police Department and other municipal forces over several days of protests.
They were gassed, shot with projectiles, and kettled in a crowd, with police attacking demonstrators who had been hemmed into a tight space, a complaint alleges.
The first lawsuit
Denver settlement amount: $1,005,000
Days after the protests began in March 2020, the first of many lawsuits was filed.
“The Denver Police cannot be trusted with the use of non-lethal weapons against
protesters,” the complaint argues. “For seven days, they have shown, across hundreds of incidents and just as many officers, that the use of these ‘less than lethal’ ordinances is being done without regard to the constitutional rights of protesters and bystanders.”
The lawsuit argued police targeted journalists, medics and ordinary citizens and violated local and state law, including by using tear gas, pepper balls, rubber bullets on people providing medical aid to demonstrators.
The plaintiffs in this class-action lawsuit argued the Denver Police Department violated protesters' freedom of expression and used excessive force. The department, the plaintiffs argued, had failed to train its officers.
“These actions have not been isolated events — rather, they are part of a force-wide use of excessive and unconstitutional force to restrict the constitutional rights of protesters challenging racism and police brutality in our society,” the complaint states.
Another group attacked
Denver settlement amount: $980,000
The plaintiffs in this case were shot with projectiles, suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, drenched in pepper spray and suffered breathing issues, a complaint alleges. One woman was injured trying to save a group of teenage girls, trapped behind a fence, while police fired on them. She was bruised and suffered eye and face burns. One woman was so coated in residual pepper spray chemicals that her children could not be around her.
Cops used batons on a medic and prevented him from accessing his first aid kit to wash pepper spray from his eyes, the lawsuit states. Protesters’ ears rang from flash-bang grenades. They vomited, experienced internal bleeding, depression and shifts in their menstrual cycles. One man required eye surgery.
One demonstrator reported he was taunted by officers and called several homophobic and ableist slurs by them before having a panic attack and being sent to the psychology wing of the jail, the complaint alleges.
After the attacks, many feared exercising their First Amendment rights by attending protests and community events.
Denver Police, the complaint stated, had effectively chilled speech.
The medic whose chin was severed
Denver settlement amount: $575,000
Gabriel Schlough attended a May 31 protest, serving as a medic to help fellow demonstrators.
“Instead of helping others who were injured by unprecedented police brutality, Mr. Schlough became a victim himself,” the lawsuit states.
He was shot in the face with a projectile that severed his chin, the complaint alleges.
“Throughout the George Floyd protests, DPD officers, and officers from agencies throughout the region who responded and operated under DPD’s command, purposefully shot at peaceful protesters,” the claim states. “They whooped while doing so. They celebrated when protesters were injured. And, they did all of this with one goal: to discourage people from exercising their First Amendment rights. The joy that DPD officers felt while retaliating against peaceful protesters reaffirmed the underlying principle of the protests.”
She wanted to hand out granola bars
Denver settlement amount: $575,000
Megan Matthews was handing out granola bars and water to protesters. Police started firing and hit her in the face with a projectile, a complaint alleges.
“Ms. Matthews was transported by ambulance and dropped off at the hospital where she was diagnosed with a fractured orbital, fractured nose, possible tear in her retina, concussion and a one-inch-deep cut on her forehead that went down to the corner of her eye and required stitches,” according to the complaint.
She had surgery on her nose and eye.
"Eight months after the injury, Ms. Matthews still experiences flashes of light and her eye is still leaking tears,” the complaint states.
Losing an eye
Denver settlement amount: $550,000
Russell Strong held a sign that stated “No Justice, No Peace,” emblazoned with a peace sign.
An officer shot a projectile at Strong, hitting him in the head, breaking bones in his face and eye socket.
He was taken to Denver Health for immediate eye surgery, but it was unsuccessful, and his eye was removed.
She suffered a brain injury
Denver settlement amount: $500,000
Protesting police killings on May 30, Mercii Thomas was hit in the head with a projectile and knocked unconscious, a complaint alleges. She woke up on the ground, bleeding.
She required stitches to close her head wound and suffered a brain injury.
A longtime activist’s ongoing case
Denver case: Ongoing, but a jury awarded $14 million. Denver appealed the verdict.
Aurora settlement amount: $500,000
Longstanding police accountability advocate and former state representative Elisabeth Epps was on the steps of the state capitol on May 28, 2020, when officers shot tear gas at the crowd. Epps, who has asthma, had breathing troubles and “extreme eye pain” for two weeks, a lawsuit stated. She was also shot with pepper bullets. In the following days, her phone was shattered by a projectile and her respirator was cracked.
“Ms. Epps intends to continue protesting peacefully at future protests and seeks to do so without the threat of retaliatory police actions such as tear gassing and the use of ‘less-lethal’ weapons,” the complaint states.
A Denver jury awarded her and her fellow defendants $14 million, though the city of Denver is appealing the case in federal court.
Aurora, meanwhile, settled the case for $500,000.
The medic
Denver settlement amount: $500,000
Demonstrator Michael Acker was working as a medic, helping people hit with pepper spray and projectiles, when police shot a 40mm round, hitting his eye. Over multiple days, he experienced more of the same, as officers aimed “less-than-lethal” rounds at people’s heads, chests, necks and groins, the lawsuit states.
During the protests, Denver Police “were playing dress up, living out their Call-of-Duty-fantasy of gassing and shooting protesters in the street without consequence,” according to his complaint. “And, as a result, peaceful protesters against police brutality suffered unprecedented brutality by DPD officers. This escalation was a feature, not a bug, of how Denver policed the protests. DPD officers wanted to start a riot.”
The journalist with a camera
Denver settlement amount: $437,500
Photographer and photojournalist Ambrose Cruz was documenting police actions and the protests. Without warning or order, Denver Police surrounded demonstrators, moved in and started shooting tear gas and foam bullets at protesters, according to the complaint.
“If you don’t (expletive) get on the ground, I’m going to (expletive) kill you,” an officer allegedly told Cruz. He went to the ground, where officers continued shooting pepper balls at him.
After the attack, his eye was bleeding, swollen, bruised and unable to open.
According to the complaint, the officer said, “What happened to you? It looks like your wife beat you. I’d say that [injury] was two days old, this must have happened another night.”
Shot in the face
Denver settlement amount for Nicolas Orlin: $210,000
Aurora settlement amount for Orlin: $100,000
Denver settlement amount for Shawn Murphy: $255,000
Aurora settlement amount for Murphy: $175,000
Nicolas Orlin was filming the protests when officers chucked a tear gas canister near him, according to the complaint. He was putting a traffic cone over the canister when an officer shot a rubber bullet at his face and hit him in the left eye, knocking him out.
He was taken to the emergency room, where his eye and face were treated. Even so, he was partially blinded and disfigured.
Police also shot Shawn Murphy with a projectile, the complaint alleges.
“Plaintiff Murphy experienced immediate, excruciating pain, was shocked, stunned, terrified, and rendered immobile as blood drained and flesh hung from his left eye and face, resulting in immediate blindness in his left eye,” the complaint states.
After undergoing surgery, his vision was saved though it is now diminished, and he now has permanent facial scars.
The claim alleges the officers were “retaliating against them for attempting to suppress the noxious gas, and not because they were threatening anyone or otherwise engaged in any illegal activity.”
The photographer and his finger
Denver settlement amount: $350,000
Photographer Trevor Hughes was taking pictures of police violence against protesters when an officer shot him with a projectile.
“The projectile was aimed directly at Mr. Hughes’ camera, struck his ring finger, and left it almost fully severed from his hand, and dangling by a piece of skin,” the complaint stated.
He wanted to bear witness
Denver settlement amount: $225,000
Robert Dayton was a Capitol Hill resident who wanted to see for himself whether the protests were violent.
“What Mr. Dayton saw shocked and horrified him: law enforcement officers were indiscriminately shooting completely peaceful protesters with projectiles,” the complaint states. “These scenes compelled Mr. Dayton to join the protesters and, ultimately, be met with the same brutality.”
Police shot him with pepper balls, and when he sat down, to recover, an officer threw a flash-bang grenade at him that exploded on his arm, the complaint alleges.
The US Marine
Denver settlement amount: $250,000
A former Marine, Youssef Amghar, marched with several thousand protesters. One participant threw a water bottle toward the police, and without trying to identify the individual, officers shot pepper balls into the crowd, the complaint alleges. Amghar was shot 14 times – in the arms and legs, and the chest.
“I’m a … U.S. Marine,” Amghar said at the time. “What are you doing?”
The reply: An officer shot Amgharthem in the face, the complaint alleges, while others threw canisters of chemical agents.
Shot in the face while filming
Denver settlement amount: $175,000
Darrell Hampton was filming police actions when an officer pointed a weapon at him and shot him in the face with a projectile, a complaint alleges.
Injured while fact-checking
Denver settlement amount: $75,000
Alex Martinson rode his bike down to the protests with a friend to see if journalists were reporting things accurately. They saw police shooting tear gas and projectiles at demonstrators.
An hour later, officers hit Martinson in the chest with a bean-bag projectile, the complaint alleges. He and his friend tried to leave, but were trapped by officers. Police shot two tear gas canisters at him. One hit his foot. The other bent his bike spoke.
He did not return to the demonstrations.
Shot and arrested
Denver settlement amount: $160,000
Sammie Lawrence was peacefully protesting when a sergeant ordered an officer to shoot him with less-lethal ordnance, a complaint alleges. Then he was unlawfully arrested, according to the complaint. The action agitated the crowd, some of whom knocked over a DPD motorcycle.
“This is an action that goes to the heart of the United States Constitution: a citizen’s right to freedom of speech and to be free of excessive force and unreasonable seizures,” the complaint stated.
Shot while holding a sign
Denver settlement amount: $135,000
Denver police shot Eric Weber with projectiles when he was holding a sign above his head at the May 30 protests, a complaint alleges.
He was hit with pepper balls and tear gas, suffered bruising and pain in his chest and painful burning.
The leader who lost a tooth
Denver settlement amount: $50,000
After leading a Black Lives Matter protest against police killings, Lindsay Minter was walking back to her car. Officers threw a blast ball grenade at her, a complaint alleges. It exploded, sending one of its pellets slamming into her face.
Her face swelled and she lost a tooth.
A father and sons
Denver settlement amount: $12,500
Titus Peterson took his two sons, 12 and 18, to the demonstration.
Outside the state capitol, police tear-gassed the crowd, including the Peterson family. Their eyes burned, they struggled to breathe, and they left the demonstration, a lawsuit states.
The father’s lawsuit accused the police of violating his family’s First Amendment right to gather on the city’s sidewalks.
Afterward, “they were in shock, anxiety, fright, horror, grief, humiliation, embarrassment, anger, chagrin, disappointment, and worry,” Peterson wrote in the lawsuit.
A ruptured testicle
Denver settlement amount: Still in process
Stephen Fink was using his smartphone to film police violence. Police threw a tear gas canister toward him. They shot him in the groin with a projectile, cutting into his genitalia.
The projectile ruptured his left testicle, a complaint alleges.
Denver has not settled the case and it is continuing through the federal courts.
