‘Get Up or We Will Slam You’: Florida Deputies Body Slammed Unarmed Black Man After Paralyzing Him. That Man Just Received a $5.5 Million Settlement
Timmie Lee Knox, a then 17-year-old Black teen, was on his way to a kids’ party when he ended up Tasered and paralyzed by a Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy in 2021 – the second unarmed Black man to be paralyzed by deputies from the same agency within a 10-year span.
Last week, the Palm Beach Post reported Knox received a $5.5 million settlement over the incident, which was captured on video from a deputy’s Taser.
But the West Palm Beach law firm that represented Knox, Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley, informed Atlanta Black Star via email they were not allowed to release the video to the media under the settlement agreement.
Knox agreed to the settlement in July 2024, but it only became public last week after the Palm Beach Post received a copy of the $5.5 million check through a public records request, informing readers that it is not clear if the check represented the entire settlement.
Paralyzing Black Man Who Committed No Crime
The Tasering took place on May 7, 2021, as Knox was picked up by a carload of friends to attend a children’s birthday party at John Prince Memorial Park. Two female friends were sitting in the front, and Knox was sitting in the back seat with a male friend and two minors, the lawsuit, obtained by Atlanta Black Star, states.
On the way to the park, they spotted an unmarked Palm Beach sheriff’s car making a U-turn to follow them. Fully aware that the deputy was behind her, the driver drove the speed limit as the deputy continued following them through various streets. At one point, the driver was so nervous that she pulled into a random residential driveway.
That was when Palm Beach sheriff’s deputy Dustin Sullivan stepped out of the unmarked car and ordered all the occupants out of the car.
Once outside the car, Palm Beach sheriff’s deputy Christopher Francis “aggressively approaches Timmie with his taser drawn,” the claim states.
“Fearing for his safety, Timmie runs southbound on Aspen Road and hops on a fence with nothing in his hands. Timmie always keeps his empty hands visible.”
The two deputies started chasing Knox on foot, leaving the other occupants unattended to. Both deputies radio to dispatch they are pursuing a person, asking for backup but at no time did they mention the person they were chasing was armed.
Sullivan has his Taser in his hand, which turned on a camera on the weapon, allowing the attorneys to describe the incident in the lawsuit. The claim states the video shows Knox climbing on the roof of a house, “where he immediately surrenders and puts both of his empty hands up.”
But Sullivan fires his Taser at Knox from behind him, causing the teen to fall down on the roof. Sullivan holds the trigger for five seconds, torturing Knox unnecessarily. The teen then attempts to stand up and run away, but Sullivan Tasers him again.
“As a result, Timmie falls from the roof to the ground in the backyard of the home, landing on his neck, severing his spinal cord and causing a permanent loss of all control of his lower extremities,” the lawsuit states.
“The deputies then run to the back of the home where Timmie lay immobilized, screaming at him to get up. Both deputies scream at Timmie saying, ‘get up or we will slam you.’ Timmie repeatedly tells the deputies he cannot move.”
But the deputies followed through on their threat.
“The deputies grab Timmie’s fragile body and slam him back to the ground, further exacerbating his injuries. Timmie is paralyzed from the neck down and his injuries are permanent and severe,” the claim states.
But after Tasering, paralyzing and body slamming him, deputies apparently had nothing to charge him with, because there is nothing indicating he was arrested in that time frame listed on Palm Beach County online court records.
Nevertheless, Sheriff Bradshaw cleared the two deputies of wrongdoing even though the lawsuit states they violated numerous departmental policies.
“Like all of the other instances of excessive force described above, SHERIFF BRADSHAW clears his deputies of any wrongdoing shortly after the incident and without having thoroughly investigated the circumstances of TIMMIE’s catastrophic injuries,” the claim states.
The lawsuit listed Sullivan and Sheriff Bradshaw as defendants, accusing the deputies of violating Knox’s civil rights, battery and negligence.
Previous Black Man Paralyzed Committing No Crime
In September 2013, Dontrell Stephens was riding his bicycle when Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputy Adam Lin began following him in his patrol car, prompting the Black man to step off his bike and walk towards the deputy.
Deputy Lin responded by shooting him four times, claiming he was in fear for his life when all Stephens was holding in his hand was a phone. Stephens, 20, was left paralyzed from the waist down.
Video of the shooting went viral, and a jury awarded Stephens $22.5 million, but the appeals court overturned that. He ended up receiving $6 million in 2020. And he died from complications of the shooting at the age of 28 in 2021.
“Deputy Lin was not only cleared of any wrongdoing in a grossly deficient internal investigation, he was promoted to the rank of Sergeant and assigned as a Training Officer,” the lawsuit states.
Lin, Sullivan and Francis are only three of many Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies that have been cleared of wrongdoing after abusing their authority. The lawsuit lists numerous incidents involving other deputies stemming back to 2005 when Bradshaw took over as sheriff.
“PBSO deputy sheriffs have increasingly and alarming used deadly and excessive force in situations where the use of such for was entirely unjustified and where the conduct of the officers created danger that would otherwise have not existed and contributed to the claimed need to use force,” the claim states.
“This conduct includes initiating ‘stop and frisk’ encounters without reasonable suspicion (particularly areas targeted as ‘high crime’ and populated by persons of color), using excessive levels of force which are uncalled for under the circumstances, and escalating force without a reasonable basis, needlessly endangering lives and safety.”
Sullivan, who was hired in 2016, “is notorious in Palm Beach County for his careless, confrontational and reckless disposition,” the claim states.
A 2021 video posted on YouTube shows Sullivan threatening a woman for recording him in public, which is her legal right.