A lawsuit has been filed against the city of Detroit and five police officers by a Black couple who were pulled over and subjected to excessive force. Imani Ringgold-D’Abell and his girlfriend, La’Shanna Taylor filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court against the city and officers Jeffrey Adamisin, Nicholas Sellitti, Anthony Paredes, Thomas Haverlock and James Pilchak, according to Detroit News.
Ringgold-D’Abell and Taylor were on their way to a dentist appointment for their daughter on September 13, 2019 when they were pulled over for not having a license plate. The family had recently moved to Michigan from Illnios to be close to Taylor’s family and bought a used car. They got a temporary registration permit that was valid for 90 days, through Sept. 27, 2019. However, when Ringgold-D’Abell went to a car wash, the paper plate was washed away, the lawsuit states. He had also lost his driver’s license and was using a temporary paper Illinois driver’s license along with a picture of the license he lost on his cell phone.
However. it wasn’t enough when he was pulled over by Adamisin after explaining the situation, Adamisin called for backup. During the arrest, Ringgold-D’Abell was “encircled” by the five police officers and “tased multiple times and suffered blows to his body including an officer’s punches to his stomach while another held his torso in place,” the lawsuit claims.
Once Taylor, stepped out of the vehicle to ask what was happening to her boyfriend, she was pushed by an officer, the lawsuit says. At one point, Taylor was handcuffed, however, never arrested.
Ringgold-D’Abell spent three days in jail because he couldn’t pay his bond, Fox News reports.
