A jury awarded $19.75 million on Friday to six people who were hit by police gunfire as bystanders to an officer-involved shooting in 2022 on a busy Lower Downtown street.
Lawyers filed civil rights lawsuits on behalf of the people who were hit by stray gunfire.
They sued Brandon Ramos, a former Denver police officer who acknowledged that he shot into the crowd when he saw a suspect begin to pull a gun.
The jury award will be divided between the plaintiffs — Yekalo Weldehiwet, Bailey Alexander, Willis Small IV, Mark Bess, Angelica Rey and Ayla Bersagel. It wasn’t immediately clear if the city would play any role in paying for the settlement.
“The city was not sued. Only the former officer, who was terminated some time ago,” wrote spokesperson Jon Ewing in an email.
Ramos took a plea deal in 2024 after being charged criminally for firing into a crowd. He was convicted of third-degree assault and sentenced to 18 months of probation. He also had his peace officer’s license revoked.
The shooting happened early on July 17, 2022. At 1:30 a.m., officers were looking for Jordan Waddy, who was involved in a fight before the shooting and was suspected to have a gun. The bars were closing and the streets were filling up on the 20th block of Larimer Street, according to video footage of the incident.
As officers closed in on Waddy, queues were circling around several food trucks. Three officers approached Waddy, who can be seen in body-worn camera footage backing up onto a sidewalk, between a bar and a food truck. Police said they gave verbal commands for Waddy to stop as they approached him. But officers say he disregarded the command and began pulling a gun out of his waistband.
Three officers fired at least seven rounds toward him, but Officer Ramos also fired into the crowd. Five people were hit by bullets and a sixth person was hit by shrapnel from a bullet that lawyers believe hit a metal tree ring first. Video footage shows Ramos had his spotlight turned the wrong direction and shining into his own eyes.
One of those bystanders, Mark Bess, said in an earlier interview with CPR News that he felt lucky to be alive.
"We want justice and we're tired of getting thrown to the side with no regard for how we're doing. They changed our lives forever and they keep making us relive it by not owning up to their bad apples, as they would call it," Bess said.
Ramos was not in immediate danger when he fired his gun, according to his criminal indictment. Waddy was also shot, and everyone survived. Waddy later pleaded guilty of possession of a firearm by a previous offender.
Juries set civil damages awards by considering whether any of the victims have permanent disfigurement, economic loss or permanent economic loss, like a disability and emotional trauma. They also can consider whether to make the award punitive, which means the person causing the harm had a reckless disregard at the time.
Denverite editor Andrew Kenney contributed to this story.
