Matt consoled him and told him it was OK, but also said that he needed to apologize to his mom. If no positive reviews are shown, then no reviews are currently on file. Runnels had once been an officer inthe Kansas City Police Department, though Matt didnt work in his sector. He was athletic and made good grades. I felt like he would have cared for an injured animal better.. Matt arrived at the hospital and went straight to the intensive care unit. The hearing lasted no more than 30minutes. He hadnt seen most of them for a while, so they all made small talk. 71. . Timothy Runnels electrocuted the teen for 23 seconds during traffic stop, more than four times longer than cops are . Judge Whipple issued the sentence, which will be followed by two years of supervised release. Tchous study was one of the first to demonstrate that a Taser shock canpotentially lead to cardiac arrest and it was financed by Taser International and completed in 2006, eight years prior to Runnels using a Taser on Bryce. Then hell get depressed at the idea that he needs to be reminded about something that just happened. Masters went into cardiac arrest after Runnels used a stun gun on him after the teen refused to get out of his car. Dont give me that bullshit, he now thought. Although the minor suffered cardiac arrest and facial injuries, he survived the incident due to timely medical treatment by medical personnel at the scene and at the hospital. The neurologist calmly explained that 15 is the best score, indicating a patient is fully aware and awake. Sentencing was not in place, but Runnels had agreed to plead guilty to one of the four charges, violating the constitutional rights of a minor. True, Black and Native Americans areat least 21 times moreat risk to be shot and killed by overzealous Law Enforcement Officers, but white people are at risk, too. A friend at the Independence police station called Matt to tell him his son had just been arrested. Four years is not nearly enough for condemning this young man to alifetime of pain and suffering, but it is so much more justice than so many others got. Then, to Runnels: Hes turning blue., Watching the video, Stacy was astounded. While we are pleased that Mr. Runnels was held accountable for his actions, no one really wins in this scenario. It is estimated that someone is murdered in Texas every seven hours. Stacy just looked on in horror. NINTH GRADE HONOR ROLL: Darren Abel, Elliott Anthony, Macy Aparicio, Carter Bainter, Caleb Bennett, Peyton Black, Zachary Bolen, Jesse Bryant, Courtney Carter, Cameron Casto, Jacob Cline, Broghan Cooper, Jordan Cordell, Meghan Cory, Audrey Craig, Jake Daniels, Makenna Davis, Jadyn Dawson, [] His face was swollen, with some dirt and asphalt mashed into his cheek. Some of Bryces memories are made and erased overnight, and sometimes more frequently. When you cross that line, there are going to be consequences and they are going to be severe, he told the judge last week. Matt started searching the internet for Taser deaths and cardiac arrest. That same month, Matt went in for his annual in-service update an hourlong training session in which officers go over updated information about how to legally deploy police tactics, including the use of Tasers. A twenty-three second jolt of 50,000 watts ended his life for a short time resulting in irreparable brain damage. Finally, the Masters thought, they were going to get some closure and understand exactly what went wrong. We need cops of good conscience to join the fight against their murderous brethren. A full 23 seconds after Runnels pulled the trigger on the X26 Taser, he let it go and handcuffed Bryce. He believes that when Runnels said, All right, fine, fuck it, he was making a conscious decision to punish Bryce. Timothy Runnels, et al Case Summary On 06/17/2019 Bryce Masters filed a Civil Right - Other Civil Right lawsuit against Timothy Runnels ,. Someone is raped in Texas every hour. INDEPENDENCE, Mo. He had to have done something.. The young man lived, and Matt was justified, the grand jury found, but even then, it made him extremely uncomfortable. The Kansas City Star INDEPENDENCE, Mo. Runnels had once been an officer inthe Kansas City Police Department, though Matt didnt work in his sector. The trial judge, however, denied Runnels motion, and the 8th Circuit last week upheld that finding. His attorney, J.R. Hobbs, asked Whipple to place Runnels on probation. Who beat the shit out of me? The next eight weeks were crucial to his recovery; doctors advised the Masters that Bryce would make his most significant gains in the first couple months after his injury. First, according to Bryce, he and a friend named Curtis Martes were searched by two Independence officers, Travis Gillihan and Timothy Runnels. Given the grim initial prognosis, the Masters felt lucky. The spot where Bryce was pulled over is suburban and residential, a paved road next to a manicured lawn with a public sidewalk running through it. Bryce Masters awake at Centerpoint Medical Center, Independence, Missouri, Sept. 17, 2014. Any positive reviews previously submitted about Dr. Timothy D Runnels, DC will appear here. The Supreme Court has said that the doctrine is necessary to give officers breathing room to make reasonable but mistaken judgments. Without it, according to the court, the possible threat of personal liability would make them overly timid and discourage people from entering public service. Runnels told him to get up. They called for scans and tests. What happened to my teeth? he asked repeatedly. Curtis thought Matt should probably come by to make sure everything was all right. It was unacceptable the way hed talked to her. Runnels walked toward the passenger side door. Our law has been submitted as a Resolution to the NAACP. Timothy Runnels is a provider established in Spring, Texas and his medical specialization is Chiropractor. He was intimately familiar with the grand jury process and how it skewed heavily toward exonerating officers in use of force situations. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. 2. Why risk getting hurt? In the video, Runnels refers to Bryces August arrest, which was being contested by the Masters. They couldnt believe he was up walking in less than a week. It just may be too late. The recent Tasering of then 17 year-old Bryce Masters by Missouri cop Timothy Runnels has sparked outrage in the community and around the world. It was emotional for both sides. In hindsight, Matt was fixated on the Taser and not on the other evidence in front of him. According to a press release from the FBI, Runnels had deprived the minor of his civil rights by deliberately dropping the minor face first onto the ground while the minor was restrained and not posing a threat to Runnels or others. A court date was set for September 11, almost a year after Runnels tased Bryce. Why dont cops know all this? Certainly some did, but for all the years Matt had carried a Taser, he didnt know. He would sleep for a bit, forget again, then look in the mirror. Dr. Stanley Augustin, the chief trauma surgeon, joined the conversation. Today the video, which had never been played in any public setting, would be played in open court. Most of the damage Bryce suffered, though, was done to his psyche. Of all those involved in this case, I was most interested in the reaction of Bryces dad who is himself a cop. I havent done anything officer, Bryce yelled. Of course, no such luck for Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Sandra Brown(a pause to catch mybreath). Matt Masters and Stacy Masters at their home on June 2, 2016. Facebook gives people the power. But the information was not considered urgent enough to repeat annually.) They put ice packs around his body to prevent his brain from swelling. View the profiles of people named Timothy Runnels. A former Independence police officer has been sentenced to serve four years in prison after violating the rights of a 17-year-old boy during a traffic stop.Timothy Runnels used a Taser on Bryce . I cant tell you what is on there, Stacy remembered one agent telling them. Then click "Follow," which will make all STDD diariesappear in "My Stream" of your Daily Kos page. Matt, Stacy, and Bryce sat around an oval conference table with their attorney Daniel Haus, a few FBI agents, an attorney from the Department of Justice, and Ketchmark. They wanted to spend the day down by the ballpark as a family. We came together to support the Dream Defenders in Floridaand their mission, our first project and the origin of our name. Timothy is related to Carolyn Ann Runnels . Former Deputy Chief James Tolberttestifiedthat Sanford drew the crime scene of the home for him on a blank piece of paper during his investigation, and the picture included the locations where the bodies were found. The practitioner's primary taxonomy code is 111N00000X with license number 9478 (TX). More importantly, if there was no warrant associated with Bryce or his car, why was he stopped in the first place? I dont play games., Ive been tased a dozen times, Runnels said to Bryce. Timothy Runnels now . It was easier for himto view Runnelss actions as an error of judgment exacerbated by ignorance. . on about your day, ask yourself: How likely is it that the story you just read would have been produced by a different news outlet if The Intercept hadnt done it? Needle caught anything and everything thrown at him. He told the Masters that his staff had Bryce prepped for a procedure known as Code ICE a therapeutic hypothermia that slows the blood flow of a coma patient and keeps the brain from swelling, protecting it from further damage. But its undeniable.. Although Runnels was no longer a police officer, and the Masters were confident they had a civil case against the Independence Police Department, criminal charges seemed unlikely. The Intercept is an independent nonprofit news outlet. That is so whether the tasing comes in the form of multiple, separate deployments or, as in this case, a single, continuous deployment that lasts for an extended period of time., Kirk Presley, Masters attorney, hailed the courts ruling, saying it relied on established precedent that excessive force is always unconstitutional., In fact, the jury found that defendant Runnels continued Taser trigger pull was intentional and malicious, Presley said in an email. He said Runnels was a sworn law enforcement officer whose actions were not only wrong, but criminal. Keeping these facts in mind, Matt thought back to his training, and Bryces case. Rick Guilbault, the former head of training at Taser International, testified on behalf of Runnels that his use of the Taser was consistent with common practice and training. Bryce would spend several hours cooling down, stay cooled for a minimum of 24 hours, and then be slowly warmed back up. The Masters could see Bryces heart heaving up and down on the screen, an indication that he was going through cardiac arrest. I dont understand, when you watch that video, how you could treat anybodys kid that way.. Matt, Stacy, and Bryce all said that the harassment has become worse. Timothy Runnels, a 32-year-old former Independence, Missouri, police officer SENTENCED to 4 years in Federal Prison. There were four counts total, two related to obstruction of justice and two related to deprivation of rights. When Matt and Stacy got home, Bryce came up to their room to talk. Timothy Runnels, 32, previously pleaded guilty to violating the civil rights of 17-year-old Bryce Masters. Kos Media, LLC. He was born on May 27, 1947 in Bloomingburg, Ohio to Clarence and Rebecca Wyatt Runnels. Today, he sees law enforcement through the eyes of a victim. Lack of human empathy does. She told the Masters that Bryce had scored a three. Runnels faced a dire sentence that day up to 10 years in federal prison. Runnels had resigned from the Kansas City department under threat of termination in 2010. Enter https://www.police1.com/ and click OK. For Stacy, though, the worst part was looking at his limbs. It looked like he hit his head on the concrete. The FBI told him to be patient and that an agent would contact him sometime in the next few days. Since then, he has trained at the Moody Health Center, become . It was the first and only time that I ever tattled on any of my siblings. Bryce Masters, 17, suffered a cardiac arrest after being Tasered in 2014. It really should be that if someone with the power to deprive others of life, liberty, and freedom is found to have falsified evidence that resulted in a conviction, then they themselves should be sentenced to the full term that the charge carries. They couldnt hear the siren when Runnels turned it on, but they soon saw the Pontiac slowing down, pulling to the side of the road, stopping. Matt had been there before, a guy laughing in the room at the helpless contortions of Taser victims. But in the summer of 2014, Bryce started having run-ins with the local police. Daily Kos moves in solidarity with the Black community. Timothy Runnels, 32, previously pleaded guilty to violating the civil rights of 17-year-old Bryce Masters. The dashcam video showed officerssearching through Bryces vehicle asBryce was carted off in an ambulance. Matt believes Runnels should have never been hired by Independence after he resigned from Kansas City. This case was filed in U.S. Courts Of Appeals, U.S. Court Of Appeals, Eighth Circuit. Everything Taser told them.. Runnels also was indicted on charges of depriving Masters of his civil rights under color of law and obstruction of justice. Matt and Stacy were livid. Each time, Stacy and Matt tried to gently remind him that he had been injured by a police officer. After going for so long without oxygen, at least some brain damage was inevitable. The cop put his foot on his back and moved it back and forth like he was putting a cigarette out and asked him, Are you ready to get up now? You could tell the kid was going into convulsions.. Two years earlier, Masters, then a 17-year-old high school senior, was driving his car when Runnels pulled him over for a traffic stop. Thats all it takes to support the journalism you rely on. He mostly kept out of trouble and hung out with friends from school. Taser puncture marks on Bryce Masterss chest and torso, Sept. 15, 2014. The case status is Pending - Other Pending. Curtis told them it was one of the cops who had stopped them earlier that summer. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ketchmark informed Matt that the policies and case law pertaining to Taser use routinely justified broad uses of the weapons uses that Matt now considered dangerous. During a sentencing hearing before Senior U.S. District Court Judge Dean Whipple of the Western District of Missouri, the government provided evidence that Runnels deployed his taser into the minors chest during a traffic stop and then caused the electric current to run for approximately 20 seconds, four times longer than officers are trained to deploy a taser. And, when they do, theres someone on the receiving end of that., When asked if he still has faith in the system, considering that Runnels is one of the rare officers to face criminal punishment for using excessive force, Matt shakes his head no. The cop was like, You want to mess with me, and pulled out his Taser and tased him, witness Michelle Baker recalled after recording a, shortly after the incident. Later, when they got home and Bryce described what had happened, something about the arrest didnt seem right. As a police officer, his opinion about whether Tasers could kill mirrored the standard explanation he and his fellow officers had heard from the companys trainers, that Tasers causing cardiac arrest was just a tall tale concocted by attorneys and the media to disparage a useful police weapon. The team members would receive their 2015 World Series rings that afternoon, so Matt and Stacy got Bryce up mid-morning. But I did.. In finding that Runnels was not entitled to qualified immunity, the 8th Circuit adopted a position that it has rarely taken in the past. Our state version of the MBOPRA is currently in committee in the Kansas legislature. The past 20 months have been emotionally and physically exhausting, the statement said. The companys use of the condition in public statements and court testimony is controversial as well. The catalyst for the crime was the 23-second Taser deployment straight into Bryce's chest. Masters was 17 at the time of the incident and had sued the city of Independence along with police officer Timothy Runnels, who shot the teen with a taser after Masters refused to get out of his car. Nah, that cant even happen, he remembered saying. But there was no charge for the initial Taser deployment. KCUR serves the Kansas City region with breaking news and powerful storytelling. Why dont you just leave me the fuck alone?. He was shot 21 times in the back and seven times about the body. His chin was split open. They were overcome with the fear that his heart was still weak enough, or his brain damaged in some unexpected way, that he could die in his sleep. It looked like he hit his head on the concrete. If you can watch, see for yourself: According to reports, Bryce Masters actually died from his injuriesand was lucky thatunlike those who responded to Eric Garner, his paramedics came prepared to do their jobs. hide. The Masters didnt worry much about Bryce in high school. We need White people of good conscience to join the fight against police cruelty and unlawful behavior. It's the most comprehensive and trusted online destination for law enforcement agencies and police departments worldwide. During the third week of March in 2015, Assistant U.S. Attorney David M. Ketchmark informed the Masters that Runnels was going to face a grand jury. This time, he didnt reconsider. Because youre only as good as the training.. Worse, they were afraid his emotional vulnerability would cause him to take his own life. By Wednesday morning, Independence police released Officer Runnels search warrant application, and the probable cause appeared to have changed. We saw as the officers dragged Freddie into the paddywagon,but yet no one will be held responsible for his death. He wasnt just alive he was demonstrating awareness. But Taser International has latched onto the diagnosis as a way to explain many deaths that occur after someone has been shocked with a Taser. Runnels had pled guilty to violating the civil rights of 17-year-old Bryce Masters during a traffic stop in 2014. Officer Timothy Runnels stopped Bryce Masters, 17, in the Kansas City suburb of Independence, Missouri, on Sept. 14, 2014 because Masters was driving a car owned by a woman with an outstanding. The first news reports about the incident included comments from a spokesperson who said Bryce was stopped for an outstanding warrant, and that he refused to follow the officers commands. He wanted to prove himself, but he didnt know any of the details. 2021) Annotate this Case Court Description: [Kelly, Author, with Colloton and Melloy, Circuit Judges] Civil Case - Civil Rights Act. Nineteen Republican governors chose to kill poor people by not expanding Medicaid. I thought he shot him. Officer Runnels will pay a price for his murderous actions. Bryce was recently ticketed for allegedly going 80 mphin a 40 mph zone by an officer who claimed he had paced the car to determine its speed instead of using a radar gun. The week of September 7, 2015, the Masters got a phone call from Ketchmark. share. He didnt understand why we wanted to go so early, and he threw a fit, Matt said. Medical staff furiously worked around him. From The Intercept : I still get what cops go through, the decision-making process, the damned if you do, damned if you dont process, Matt said. 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