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On Monday, Denver awarded $350,000 to a couple who sued the city in 2021 for the injuries they obtained after Denver police fired pepper balls at them and their vehicles without reason during the 2020 George Floyd protests.
According to the Denver Post, the couple, Shaiitarrio Brown and his fiancée Brittany King argued in the lawsuit that they were working as food delivery servers for DoorDash on May 30, 2020, and were near Denver’s Civic Center during the protest, not bothering anyone.
A bystander captured the attack on the couple on camera, and from the looks of the video, there were more police cruisers swarming the area than protesters. Where the footage started, a police officer had already fired a pepper ball at their vehicle, prompting an enraged Brown to get out of the vehicle and scorn the cops for shooting at their car with his pregnant fiancée inside.
“You shot a car with a pregnant woman in it,” Brown exclaimed.
Instead of apologizing or showing remorse, officers began motioning Brown to leave, which Brown declined to do. The fiancé then dared the officers to shoot again at his car, and they did numerous times with pepper balls crashing into the couple’s window. King was heard screaming and seen ducking to avoid getting hit. However, during the police’s act of defiance, King suffered a pepper ball to her pregnant stomach, a broken right hand, chemical burns and bruises. Brown had bruising and facial lacerations.
At the time, the couple was living in their vehicle. It was later deemed uninhabitable due to the toxic chemicals from the pepper balls.
King endured a complicated pregnancy due to the Denver police officers’ careless actions. The Washington Post reported that the pepper balls’ toxic chemicals caused the couple’s child to have developmental problems. They gave birth to a daughter named Brooklyn in October 2020. Brooklyn had hip dysplasia—a deformed hip joint.
Furthermore, the chemicals caused King’s struggle to consume anything because of the burning sensation in her throat.
There have been numerous lawsuits about Denver police actions during the 2020 protests.
Community leader Lindsay Minter sued the city last summer after undergoing severe dental surgery due to getting hit by a “sting ball” grenade and projectiles thrown at her. She and her lawyers argued the police targeted her.