‘Please don’t kill me. I’ve got a baby at home’: Woman wounded in deadly police chase files lawsuit
A federal lawsuit claims the police officer who killed the driver and wounded two passengers while firing 21 shots into a stolen car two years ago was known to be overzealous in chasing suspects and reckless in using deadly force.
Columbus attorney Mark Post filed the suit on behalf of Hannah Wuenschel, one of two passengers in a Pontiac G-6 that Christian Redwine was driving Nov. 6, 2016, when he led police on a chase from Columbus to Phenix City and wrecked off Riverchase Drive.
That’s where Officer Allan H. Brown Jr., who initially was not involved in the chase but had passed other police vehicles to lead the pursuit, emptied two clips into the car, killing Redwine and wounding front-seat passenger Wuenschel, then-18, and Hunter Tillis, who was 19 and in the back seat.
Brown claimed he fired because Redwine, 17, was trying to run him over. The lawsuit disputes that, alleging Brown was never in the Pontiac’s path, and his line of fire proves it.
The suit also contends the chase and shooting were unnecessary, because police knew who was driving the car, and Redwine had not been involved in a violent felony that warranted his immediate arrest.
Demanding a jury trial on claims Brown violated Wuenschel’s civil rights under the Fourth and 14th Amendments, the 40-page lawsuit names as defendants Brown, the Columbus Consolidated Government, and Police Chief Ricky Boren.
The chase
Police knew who the Pontiac’s driver and passengers were because Redwine took the car from Fred Levins and Nancy Sorrells, whom the suit identifies as Redwine’s grandparents. They named the suspects when they reported the car stolen at 3:38 a.m.
Redwine lived with couple at 3111 Cherokee Ave. in Columbus, where Levins told Officer Matthew Fuller that Redwine knew where to find the car keys. Levins “surmised that his grandson took the vehicle without permission since Redwine, Redwine’s cousin Hunter Tillis and friend Hannah were gone,” the suit states.
The chase started at 4:25 a.m., after police Capt. Bill Turner saw Redwine briefly park at the Gentian Corners Shopping Center, and followed the Pontiac as it left. Suspecting he was being tailed, Redwine pulled over on College Drive, where Turner turned on the blue lights installed on his unmarked car and got out, and Redwine sped away.
About 4:30 a.m., Brown heard the radio traffic at police headquarters on 10th Street, and left to join the chase, running four red lights and going the wrong way on a one-say street to catch up, the suit states.
The chase went on for 9 minutes in Columbus before Brown passed Turner, radioing the captain, “Let me come around you.” Brown was headed west on 13th Street toward the river bridge when he passed Officer Merri Parrish’s patrol car to lead the chase and radioed dispatch, “Taking primary on patrol, 13th Street headed into Phenix City.”
Parrish ended her pursuit, but Brown crossed into Phenix City, where he reported reaching speeds of 98 mph after a Phenix City police officer joined in the chase.
Brown followed Redwine west to the U.S. 280 Bypass, where Redwine turned north on the bypass and then cut east onto U.S. 80, also known as the North Bypass and the J.R. Allen Parkway, heading back toward Columbus.
Then he turned onto Riverchase Drive, raced south on Phenix City’s Fifth Avenue and wrecked off the road near a home at 3507 Fifth Ave., says the lawsuit.
“Dispatch, he’s wrecked out,” Brown radioed.
The shooting
According to the lawsuit, here’s what happened next:
Brown parked 10 to 15 feet behind the Pontiac’s rear passenger side, got out and stood behind its rear quarter panel.
Redwine accelerated forward, spinning his tires, then shifted to reverse “at a normal rate of speed.” The Pontiac went straight back, crossed the street and stopped again on the other side of the road.
As it passed Brown, he opened fire, shooting 11 bullets in three seconds.
Wuenschel began to scream, “No! Stop! Please! I got shot! Please, please, please!”
Brown reloaded, and fired 10 more shots, again emptying the gun before the wounded Wuenschel and Tillis crawled out onto the ground.
“Oh my God! I’m shot! Oh my God, please help me! Please!” Wuenschel pleaded. “Please. Please. Please. You shot me.”
Brown yelled: “Get down on the f-----g ground! Now! You! On the ground! I will f-----g shoot you!”
Wuenschel kept begging for mercy, adding, “Please don’t kill me. I’ve got a baby at home.”
One of Brown’s .45-caliber bullets hit her left shoulder, exiting through her upper left arm, and her lower right leg was injured either by bullet fragments or “glass shrapnel,” the suit says: “The rounds or shrapnel in her leg were not removed and remain to this day.”
The suit claims the path of Brown’s bullets show he was not directly behind the Pontiac when Redwine backed up.
The first five shots angled through the right rear passenger’s window toward the driver; the sixth and seventh went right-to-left through the rear window where Tillis was in the back seat; and the eighth, ninth, 10th and 11th shots went right-to-left through the front passenger’s side window where Wuenschel sat.
“These shooting locations and the location of shell casings confirm that Officer Brown was never in danger of being struck by the Pontiac G-6,” the suit says.
Brown told investigators he fired a second clip after the car backed across the road, because he heard the engine rev and feared Redwine was about to speed toward him, and the headlights obscured his vision.
The suit claims Redwine was dead by then, and Brown likely was not blinded by the headlights because he “managed to shoot a relatively tight pattern of ten shots directly at the driver.” Authorities found Redwine behind the wheel with the car still in reverse and the engine running.
Past incidents
The suit alleges other instances of Brown’s questionable conduct while pursuing suspects:
He was suspended for a day without pay for violating department policy on March 16, 2016, when he disregarded stop signs and red lights while snaking through residential areas in a 2 a.m. chase reaching speeds up to 90 mph, the suit says.
The chase ended with Brown shooting through his windshield as the suspect got out of his car and ran. Brown said he thought that the man pointed a gun at him, and that a passenger had thrown a brick at his patrol car during the pursuit. Authorities found no brick, and determined the suspect had slung only a gold Michael Kors watch off his wrist as he got out to run away.
Police disciplined Brown for endangering the public by continuing the chase. The suspect had committed a traffic violation.
On June 21, 2015, Brown chased a driver on the suspicion his registration and insurance were canceled. The suspect crashed into a concrete barrier on Interstate 185. The police department decided Brown did not violate policy in that instance.
On Nov. 23, 2013, Brown chased a Jeep matching the description of one seen fleeing a burglary, speeding up to 50 mph through residential areas. A sergeant ordered Brown to end the chase, so Brown turned off his blue lights. The suspects jumped from the moving Jeep and ran.
The suit claims 10 “use of force” police department reports “indicate Officer Brown’s propensity to use force.” In two cases, suspects’ arms were broken, it says.
It cites a Georgia law that says police may use deadly force only when:
▪ The officer believes the suspect has a deadly weapon.
▪ The officer believes the suspect poses “an immediate threat of physical violence.”
▪ The officer has probable cause to believe the suspect “has committed a crime involving infliction or threatened infliction of serious physical harm.”
Police are not to use lethal force only to stop a suspect from getting away, or to arrest someone for a misdemeanor.
Charges dropped
Besides stealing the Pontiac, Redwine’s companions were accused of breaking into two cars in Columbus that night, though authorities later dropped those charges.
They were charged with auto theft and two counts of second-degree burglary when police searching the Pontiac found property taken in car break-ins at Columbus’ Midtown Medical Center, 710 Center St., and the Country Inn & Suites, 1720 Fountain Court.
Wuenschel’s charges were dropped Dec. 11, 2017.
Tillis’ charges were resolved Oct. 24, 2017. In dropping the allegations related to Redwine, prosecutors wrote that both Tillis and Wuenschel could claim they were not with Redwine when the thefts occurred, and with Redwine dead, no one could testify to the contrary.
But Tillis had other pending cases, to which he pleaded guilty before being sentenced to probation:
▪ He and two others were charged with first-degree arson and second-degree burglary for breaking into a Muscogee County School District building at 4332 Rosemont Drive and setting multiple fires on April 21, 2016.
▪ He and a second suspect were charged with theft by receiving stolen property for having a 2004 Yamaha Raptor four-wheeler taken from Porzio Performance, 4804 Warm Springs Road, on Aug. 18, 2016.
▪ He and another suspect were charged with second-degree criminal damage to property for shooting out a woman’s windows with a BB gun on April 3, 2016. Tillis in that case was charged also with misdemeanor simple battery for punching a man there in the back of the head.
The aftermath
According to Wuenschel’s lawsuit, Chief Boren and other command staff decided Dec. 5, 2016, that Brown’s pursuit of the Pontiac did not violate department policy.
On May 11, 2017, Brown resigned. He had been with the department for five years, reaching the rank of officer first class.
That same month, a Russell County grand jury meeting in Phenix City to review the evidence cleared the officer of any wrongdoing.
The following August, Wuenschel’s criminal defense attorney revealed in a Muscogee Superior Court hearing that Brown’s bullets hit Redwine 11 times, and wounded Tillis twice. The attorney, Mike Garner, said that according to Wuenschel’s account, Redwine was dead before Brown reloaded.
The lawsuit claims the city, Boren and Brown are liable for the officer’s acting “with malice and specific intent to cause gratuitous injury” and should compensate Wuenschel for “pain and suffering, mental anguish and emotional distress which includes shock, indignity, humiliation, fright, nightmares, anxiety, and fear of additional injury.”
It says Brown’s conduct was so egregious that he and the other defendants cannot claim immunity from suit for acting in their official capacities.
Columbus City Attorney Clifton Fay disagrees.
“We’ll be filing an appropriate response on behalf of the city and Chief Boren and any other appropriate parties,” he said Friday, arguing police are entitled to qualified immunity for performing their duties as authorized by law.
This story was originally published November 15, 2018 at 10:44 AM.