Lawyers representing the family of a man who was shot and killed by a Fulton Police officer last year are suing police, investigators and other officials involved in the case claiming excessive force, obstruction of justice and abuse of public office. Lawyers have released bodycam footage of the shooting they say contradicts police reports.
Attorneys representing the family of Charles Christopher McClure say his rights were violated in an incident involving Fulton Police Lieutenant James Buckingham and the presentation to a grand jury that followed. On January 16, 2017, Buckingham shot and killed 43-year-old McClure in downtown Fulton. Police told media after the incident that McClure had been acting erratically, smashing windows with a metal pole on which a knife was attached and had refused to obey orders.
Newly released bodycam footage (see below) shows Buckingham - an officer with 30 years of experience - arriving at the scene with his gun out of the window, telling McClure to 'get back' as McClure strikes a parked vehicle. Buckingham shoots McClure, who then falls and drops the metal pole. Buckingham approaches and shoots McClure again when he appears to be getting up. McClure later died at a hospital.
Lawyers for McClure’s family allege that Kentucky State Police investigator Lonnie Bell and Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Stacy misrepresented the events to a grand jury by omitting the bodycam footage. They claim the presentation of facts favored the officers involved and that those facts are disputed in the bodycam footage.
Kentucky State Police Sgt. Josh Lawson said the agency has not yet received the lawsuit as of early Wednesday afternoon. He said the bodycam footage was turned over to the Commonwealth Attorney for review before being presented to a grand jury. He said the intention of their investigative division that oversaw this case was to present the facts in a fair and impartial manner.
The lawsuit was filed on Monday.
Understanding the Case
The plaintiff in the lawsuit is Bob Anderson, who attorneys representing the family say was a friend and someone McClure had worked for. McClure can be heard shouting his name in the video. He is also named as a "next friend" of McClure's three daughters. Lawyers representing the plaintiff are Greg Belzley, Camille Bathurst and Larry Forman, based out of the Louisville area. Forman said he was contacted after the shooting by the mother of one of McClure's daughters. He then reached out to Belzley Bathurst Attorneys because he said they specialized in cases similar in nature to this one.
Defendants in the case are the City of Fulton, Fulton Police Chief Terry Powell, officer Gary Fulcher, Justice and Public Safety Cabinet Secretary John Tilley, Kentucky State Police Commissioner Richard Sanders, KSP Deputy Commissioner William Payne, KSP Post 1 investigator Lonnie Bell and Commonwealth's Attorney Michael Stacy. In the complaint, the individuals are mentioned as being involved to varying degrees of either direct misconduct or as supervising or in charge of setting policies for those involved in misconduct.
The suit is a civil action filed on Monday, February 26, 2018 in the U.S. District Court, Western District of Kentucky.
The Shooting Incident:
Attorney Greg Belzley said, “Officers are not trained to shoot somebody who is unarmed, already wounded, and begging not be shot again."
Belzley said McClure was "mentally ill" and was aggravated about not being able to see his children. "He was experiencing a psychiatric crisis. People occasionally go off. It doesn't mean we kill them," Belzley said. He said a toxicology report showed that he had drugs in his system (methamphetamine and amphetamine).
According to a website directory of Kentucky arrests, McClure had been arrested numerous times on various charges by Fulton area police since 2000. Buckingham stated in a police interview that he had interacted with McClure a few times in weeks and months prior to the shooting, in which McClure had been distraught and they had attempted to calm him down.
Belzley and Forman outlined the events in the video:
Belzley said, “You’ve got a situation where an individual was walking around with a metal bar. At one point, he had a knife taped to the end of it. But that fell off before he was shot the first time. He does nothing more than cause property damage. And in the course of his committing some more property damage, that is swinging this metal pole against the back window of an SUV, he is shot by Mr. Buckingham the first time without any warning, no instruction that he drop the weapon or be shot, or anything like that, and then, after he is shot the first time, he drops the metal bar. Mr. Buckingham walks around the back of the SUV and encounters Mr. McClure on his back, his hands empty, begging not to be shot again. And Mr. Buckingham walks up and shoots him again. And it’s the second shot that went through his spleen, his lung, his diaphragm, his liver and probably caused his death. And the second shot was from virtually point-blank range. A distance where Mr. Buckingham, had he wanted to, could probably have pushed Mr. McClure down with his foot.” He also added that Police Chief Terry Powell was "in the line of fire."
Forman said, “The first shot is not justified by any standard of police practice in 2018 - or 2017 when this happened.” He said the officer darts from his vehicle and does not provide any kind of warning or command to drop the weapon before firing at McClure.
“You can watch hundreds of proper police work videos on the Internet… of what an officer is supposed to do in an encounter with an individual that is brandishing - forget a pole - I’m talking about cases where people have guns in their hand. You can’t simply come out and start firing,” Foreman said. He added that attack on property is not an offense that merits the use of deadly force.
Forman said of the second shot: “Buck executes him. This is the only possible verbiage I can use given the circumstances.” He said the ‘kill shot’ was at 'point-blank range,' while McClure was unarmed and on the ground. He said he didn’t believe the first shot to be fatal, but the second one punctured “vital organs,” according to the complaint.
Belzley said Chief Powell approached McClure with his hands empty. Referring to the chief's dashcam video that recorded what happened before Buckingham's video, he said, “Incidents that precede that moment indicate that the chief does not perceive Mr. McClure as representing a lethal threat at all.” Other reports that describe what happened before the shooting describe McClure smashing the front windshield of Chief Powell's vehicle (see below).
Belzley said after the shooting, the officers delayed calling for an ambulance. According to the complaint, police did not render aid to McClure. The complaint describes a conversation with dispatch about some confusion over the need for and whereabouts of an ambulance. McClure was later pronounced dead at the Jackson Purchase Medical Center.
KSP investigator Lt. Lonnie Bell’s review of the bodycam:
In a report that describes KSP investigator Lt. Lonnie Bell's review of Buckingham's video, he said the entire video is 22 minutes and 31 seconds. He said it begins with Buckingham driving to assist Powell. Buckingham exits his vehicle with his handgun "and Mr. McClure comes toward him as he breaks the glass in the police vehicle. Mr. McClure is shot by Lieutenant Buckingham and goes to the ground. Mr. McClure is given verbal commands to get down but attempts to get up and is shot again. Mr. McClure resists while officers attempt to place him in handcuffs. Officers on the scene attempt to provide first while awaiting EMS. When EMS arrives they provide medical services and elect to transport Mr. McClure to the hospital via ambulance."
Kentucky State Police Lieutenant Kyle Nall, who was the investigative lieutenant at the time and had acted as the public information officer in this incident said to WKMS that he did not want to comment on the nature of the shooting, but said that generally police "cannot train for every single factor in every scenario." He said it is an "extremely unfortunate situation any time an officer has to use deadly force. He said both the families of McClure and Buckingham will never be the same, and added, "There's a human element on both sides of this."
Kentucky State Police interviews:
In police reports, witnesses described McClure as waving the pole with the knife affixed to it at cars, damaging some and threatening people in the vicinity.
Lieutenant Buckingham said in a police interview that when he arrived he saw McClure standing outside of Chief Powell’s vehicle. He said he was responding to the police chief requesting help. Buckingham stated that he was familiar with McClure. He said he saw the pole and had heard there had been a knife on it from radio reports.
“When I got out I got out real quick and when I was pulling up I noticed that he, I was trying to get as close as I could to the Chief’s car and he saw me coming. And he focused at me, focused at my vehicle and he started walking towards me with the stick over his head. So I jumped out of my car and I think at this time is when I fired the first shot when he was coming towards my vehicle and I heard him say ‘No, No’ and he took off running or trying to run and I honestly thought I missed him shooting him, I thought I missed. And he went back by the Chief’s car, right by his car again, swinging that stick, or pole, whatever it was, and he went behind a van that was parked behind the police Chief, a burgundy color van, and I heard the glass pop on it. And when he came back around, this is I know I shot him again.”
Buckingham continued in the police interview, “When he came back around towards me cause when he fell right against where I was, right at my vehicle where I was but somewhere in that process I don’t know where it happened, he hit my truck with his stick and that’s where I’m blank. I mean I can’t recall that, I mean I know they said somebody said ‘Damn Buck, he broke the glass out of your car too.’ I’m just blank there, I am and I know when he went down we had to fight with him or tussle with him, wrestle, whatever you want to call it, and uh get the handcuffs on him to make sure he didn’t have any other weapons on him and I don’t think he did, I think he had a phone on him and something else, it wasn’t a weapon. And we put him against my truck and called for an ambulance to come down there.”
Buckingham said in the interview that McClure had already smashed Powell’s windshield when he shot the first time. “After he hit his windshield, and he was walking around his car, like I said when I was pulling up he just backed off of Chief, it looked like and he saw me coming with my lights and everything on and he just, he just came right at me. I mean he started coming towards me, walking my way.” After giving this account, Buckingham later said in the interview that he had not reviewed the bodycam footage.
Buckingham said in the interview he felt McClure would have injured or killed the Chief had he continued to do what he was doing. He said he didn’t know if the Chief was trapped in his vehicle. He stated that he didn’t think his Taser would have been effective given the range and that McClure was “in a swinging mode.” He said he didn’t want to take a chance tackling McClure, given the size of the weapon and reports that it had a knife on it. Later in the interview, Buckingham said, "I hate it, I hate that I had to shoot a man, I do. I hate that. But I honestly feel like if I hadn't of shot him and stopped him that I possibly would be injured or dead and my police Chief would or some other innocent person if he got away from us."
Chief Terry Powell said in a police interview that he had approached a crowd (the incident occurred around ‘lunchtime’) and observed McClure had a pipe with a knife stuck onto it. He said he attempted to talk with McClure to calm him down. McClure started walking away and Powell followed him in his vehicle to continue talking. He said he felt he couldn't chase him outside of the vehicle. He said he was concerned about the crowd of people and that McClure would walk into a business in his irate condition with the knife and pole. He said McClure knocked out his back window and walked around the front and "slammed." Powell said he then called for backup. He said McClure attacked a maroon van nearby that had a man inside. He saw Buckingham arrive and McClure bust Buckingham's window. He said he heard a "pop" as he got out of his vehicle, but said it didn't sound like a gunshot and thought it was a Taser. "It took me a few minutes to trying to figure out what was going on," he said. He saw Buckingham come around the vehicle with his gun and blood coming from McClure's side. "Immediately everything registered and I said Buck's done shot him." He said they handcuffed McClure, and that he said to contact the state police for the investigation.
When asked if he felt whether he should have shot, Tased or sprayed McClure, Powell said he seconded guesses this, but felt at the time McClure was taking his aggression out on the car rather than the crowd. He said if he had gotten out of the car, he felt McClure would have killed him. He said he felt that might have been McClure's intention because he said he felt chips of glass on his face from his windshield McClure smashed.
Powell said, "I wish sometimes that it didn't turn out this way, I'll probably second guess myself for the rest of my life, I wish there was another way I could have done it but I'll be honest with you the way that man was if I had come out of that vehicle I'd of probably had to shot him." When asked if a less lethal option would have been appropriate, Powell said he didn't know and felt that Tasing him would not have been effective.
Two Parts to the Complaint
A letter from Commonwealth's Attorney Michael Stacy to the investigator, KSP Lt. Lonnie Bell, said that Bell had made a presentation based on findings with the Grand Jury and then the Grand Jury deliberated. The letter said, "The Grand Jury returned a special report finding non criminal liability in regards to the shooting by Officer Buckingham, and that our office considers this matter closed."
Belzley said, “There’s two parts to this case." He said, “What is equally if not more disturbing is that this shooting was investigated by an investigator by the Kentucky State Police Critical Incident Review Team.” He said Bell saw the bodycam footage and interviewed the officers who he said gave "self-serving" accounts of the event refuted by the footage. He said the Stacy gave a 'one-sided' account of what happened in a presentation to a Grand Jury. "And the one side he gives is what he was told by the police officers at the scene, which was completely refuted by the bodycam. And he does not tell the grand jurors that there exists bodycam footage of what happens, much less shows it to them.”
When asked how bodycam footage could be omitted from the presentation, Belzley said, “I can guarantee you that that’s going to be a question that’s going to be asked both the Commonwealth Attorney and the Kentucky State Police investigator and his superiors in the course of this litigation.”
The complaint alleges that facts were 'explicitly or implicitly misrepresented' in the Grand Jury presentation in a way that portrays Powell, Buckingham and Fulcher "in the light most favorable" and that the video footage disputes the presentation.
The complaint mentions "a custom and practice of covering up unwarranted shootings of unarmed Kentucky citizens" that pervades among local and state police and other officials.
Forman said Stacy and Bell were both aware of the video of the incident. He said the Grand Jury was unaware a video existed.
“Mr. Stacy and Detective Bell actively concealed crucial evidence from the Grand Jury” by not disclosing such evidence, Forman said. He said that Bell had mentioned to the Grand Jury that they could “see” the incident, suggesting a reference to the video. In the audio of the Grand Jury presentation, when asked if McClure was still being combative after the first shot, Bell said, "You can actually see where at one point whenever they're giving him verbal commands he's got his right hand somewhere and we'll never know what he was doing with that."
KSP Response to Bodycam Footage
KSP Sgt. Josh Lawson said of the bodycam footage, "To my knowledge in this investigation, with the bodycam footage being part of that investigation, all of that, once it was concluded by our investigators with the Critical Incident Response Team, would be turned over to the Commonwealth Attorney for their review before then ultimately being turned over to the Grand Jury for presentation to that Grand Jury. It's my understanding that the case was presented to them and a No True Bill was returned." He said, "What information and evidence is involved in the case and whether or not it was presented to them, that's outside of the scope of our involvement in it, but I can say that that was part of that investigation and all of that would have been turned over to the Commonwealth Attorney."
When WKMS News asked to clarify whether the decision to present bodycam footage to the Grand Jury was up to the Commonwealth Attorney, Lawson said: "I can't comment on that." He reiterated that anything after being turned over to the Commonwealth Attorney would have been outside of their scope of responsibility for the case.
WKMS News asked if KSP, when investigating police issues, assists in any presentation that reflects positively upon the police. Lawson said the intent of the CIRT is to provide "an impartial, third-party view of the criminal investigation or otherwise investigation of what's going on there." He said looking favorably upon any police agency is not their intent.
Lawson said, "Our intent is to go in unbiased and impartial and present the facts as they are so that the public can have trust that the investigation was handled appropriately and that all the information was forwarded on in whatever light that those facts may lead us."
Where Things Are Now
Belzley said he wants to see accountability in law enforcement. “I’m pissed off and I’m going to find out what the hell is going on," he said. “We want to respect our law enforcement officials, but they have to tell the truth - particularly when they take an oath to do so. They have to admit it when they make mistakes. They have to take responsibility. And it is long past time that we admit that prosecutors and cops that cover up this kind of thing are every bit as bad as the cop that pulled the trigger," he said.
Forman said “This is one of the worst cases… That I have seen of police handling a situation so poorly. So many mistakes. So many improper dealings with a citizen that it’s simply staggering."
The defense has a chance to answer to the lawsuit, according to Belzley. He said a pre-trial order will be in place soon and that he will start taking depositions quickly.
Fulton City Attorney Allison Whitledge, Fulton Police Chief Terry Powell and Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Stacy have not responded to requests for comment.
This story will be updated.
