Baltimore City has settled a lawsuit by a West Baltimore resident who said he was struck by a police car while fleeing from officers responding to a reported carjacking.

An aerial video of the 2021 incident, captured by a police Foxtrot helicopter, showed Devonte Jett, then 16 years old, running through an open grassy area in the Upton neighborhood from an officer on foot who is pointing a gun at him.

As Jett ran, a second officer, identified as Sgt. Steven M. Reed, drove a marked police Ford Explorer toward the suspect and ran him over with both passenger-side tires, knocking him unconscious and causing injuries to his lungs and pelvis, according to a federal lawsuit filed last December.

In return for dismissing the lawsuit, Jett will be paid $400,000 from the city’s settlement fund.

The lawsuit charged that Reed “maliciously, intentionally, grossly negligently or negligently accelerated and steered the SUV directly toward Mr. Jett, running him over from behind.”

It further alleged that Officer Brandon Butt and other officers “roughly handcuffed” the unconscious teenager without calling for emergency medical assistance and later tried to cover up their use of excessive force by planting a BB gun in the plaintiff’s pants and claiming that he ran into the patrol vehicle.

The incident was not an isolated lapse in judgment, attorneys Cary Hansel and Kristen Mack argued in the lawsuit.

What happened to the teenager was “the predictable result of Baltimore Police Department’s entrenched pattern of unconstitutional force,” they wrote, “documented by the U.S. Department of Justice and illustrated through prior incidents where BPD officers used cars and transport vans in ways that seriously injured or killed civilians.”

Among other evidence, the lawsuit cited the death of Freddie Gray after a “rough ride” in a police transport van, which sparked the 2015 Uprising; the abuses of the Gun Trace Task Force, which has so far cost the city taxpayers $23 million in settlements; and a viral video last October showing a man on foot pursued by a police cruiser, which nearly struck him before crashing into the yard of a nearby house.

The final incident prompted State’s Attorney Ivan J. Bates to file attempted murder charges against the driver, Officer Robert A. Parks. His trial is set to start in August.

Timeline of Police Actions

The incident involving Jett took place on June 14, 2021 after police responded to a report of an armed carjacking of a Pizza Boli’s delivery car on Druid Hill Avenue.

According to police, Jett was observed driving the vehicle before he abandoned it on the 1000 block of Fremont Avenue. According to the lawsuit, Jett was about two blocks away, walking on Riggs Avenue, when Officer Butt saw him, jumped out of his vehicle and pursued Jett on food, twice aiming a firearm at the teenager.

Jett took off “in fear of his safety,” his lawyers said, and entered an alley behind Arlington Avenue, pursued by Officer Butt on foot and Sgt. Reed in his Ford Explorer. A subsequent internal police report gave the following sequence of events:

At time stamp 0:44, Sgt. Reed turns left into the alley adjacent to 1000 North Arlington Avenue. At time stamp 0:47, Sgt. Reed’s BWC [body-worn camera] captures Mr. Jett’s head on the right side of Sgt. Reed’s patrol vehicle’s A-pillar. At time stamp 0:48, Mr. Jett is no longer in view. At time stamp 0:57, Sgt. Reed exited his vehicle, activated his BWC and ran back towards the rear of his vehicle.

Jett was found unconscious by Butt, Reed and other officers. “Instead of waiting for emergency medical personnel to arrive or first assessing Mr. Jett medically in any way, Defendant Butt, with the aid of other officers, immediately and roughly handcuffed Mr. Jett and sat him in an upright position while he was still unconscious,” the lawsuit charged.

“Butt patted Mr. Jett down, including his left and right legs, and did not find a gun on Mr. Jett (one was allegedly used in the robbery). Officers then continued to look for the alleged gun and retraced Mr. Jett’s path, but they did not find anything,” it continued.

“Approximately 15 minutes after Officer Reed ran Mr. Jett over and several officers had already searched Mr. Jett’s person, Officer [James] Jones claims to have found ‘a black Airsoft BB gun in Mr. Jett’s pants’ near his left ankle. The available camera footage clearly shows that Mr. Jett was wearing a tight white tank top, light blue jeans and tight socks that were pulled up onto his calf. No weapon is visible in the video.”

The lawsuit said that the teenager did not remember being hit by the patrol car, which caused blood and other fluids to leak into the tissue of both of his lungs and caused air to escape from his left lung, causing it to collapse.

The officer on Foxtrot called for medical assistance, and Jett was taken to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center for treatment before being transferred to a jail cell. It is unclear how long Jett remained in police custody before being released.

Extreme Pain

According to his attorneys, the teenager experienced extreme pain in his lower extremities for months and had to go to physical therapy. The federal lawsuit charged Reed, Butt and the Police Department with excessive force, violation of the 4th and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, and negligent training and supervision.

City lawyers did not concede or object to the facts contained in the lawsuit, but argued that the complaint failed to establish a pattern of gross negligence or excessive force on the part of the officers or the BPD.

Hansel and Mack presented evidence that Reed had never completed a required Emergency Vehicle Operation Course, and further noted that BPD’s Vehicle Operation and Pursuit Policy calls on officers to operate all vehicles with “the upmost care and caution.”

“It is better to allow a suspect to temporarily escape apprehension than to jeopardize anyone’s safety in a vehicle pursuit,” the pursuit policy states. “No member shall be criticized or disciplined for a decision not to engage in a vehicle pursuit or to terminate an ongoing vehicle pursuit based on the risk involved, even in circumstances where this policy would permit the commencement or continuation of a pursuit.”

Last month, City Solicitor Ebony M. Thompson settled the case for $400,000 to “avoid the expense, time and uncertainties of further protracted litigation and the potential for an excess judgment.” The settlement will be formally approved at the Board of Estimates meeting tomorrow.

Sgt. Reed and Officers Butt and Jones remain on the force. Reed is currently suspended with pay, and Butt and Jones are on active duty, according to the BPD media relations department.

Jett pleaded guilty last June to a drug misdemeanor charge and received a one-year suspended sentence, Baltimore Circuit Court records show.