LARIMER COUNTY, Colorado — Body camera footage released Wednesday shows a man was immobilized in the roadway after being struck by a deputy's Taser when he was hit by an SUV on Interstate 25 in Larimer County earlier this year.
On Friday, Larimer County District Attorney Gordon McLaughlin said in a decision letter that no charges would be filed against Deputy Lorenzo Lujan related to the Feb. 18 traffic stop that resulted in the death of 28-year-old Brent Thompson. However, the letter indicates that Lujan's failure to fully assess the imminent threat of oncoming traffic was a "clear lapse in judgment."
Attorneys for Thompson's family publicly released the body-worn camera footage on Wednesday and said his family is "appalled" by the fact that Lujan was not disciplined or terminated.
> Content warning: This body camera video contains images that may be difficult to watch. 9NEWS has blurred the moments surrounding the man's death.
They previously called for the Colorado Attorney General to review the decision not to charge him.
"At the time that Brent ran from law enforcement, he was only suspected of committing the crimes of driving with expired registration and giving a false name to law enforcement," the Thompson family's attorney said. "The Larimer County Sheriff's Department has proven once again that the police cannot and will not police themselves."
On Feb. 18 around 9 p.m., Lujan spotted a Ford Fusion with expired tags at a hotel on Mulberry Street just off Interstate 25. When the driver of that car left the hotel, he followed the driver to initiate a traffic stop. Both cars turned onto Mulberry Street, but at the last second, Thompson, who was driving the Fusion, changed course and got on the ramp to northbound I-25, the DA letter says.
According to the letter, Lujan followed Thompson and requested backup for the traffic stop, which was eventually made near the Mountain Vista Drive exit, the letter says.
At first, Thompson told Lujan that his name was "Jacob Jones," the letter says. When Lujan ran that name, he saw photos of a person that clearly did not match the person driving the Fusion.
Lujan and another deputy who arrived to assist confronted Thompson about using the fake name, but Thompson insisted that he had not lied. Lujan told Thompson he was under arrest, and Thompson ran down an embankment toward the interstate, according to the letter.
> Editor's note: The raw body camera video below of the deputy using his Taser on a man who is hit by an SUV contains images that may be disturbing to some viewers:
Lujan ran after Thompson, got out his Taser, and said, "Stop or you're gonna get Tased. Stop," the letter says.
Thompson tried to jump over a guardrail, but his foot got caught and he stumbled onto the shoulder of I-25, according to the letter. At about the same time, Lujan deployed his Taser, hitting Thompson, who fell into a lane of traffic and was hit by an oncoming SUV.
"The deputy was forced to make a choice with no easy answer: act and try to stop the suspect … or stand by passively and simply hope no innocent people got hurt," Larimer County Sheriff's John Feyen said in a video statement.
The attorneys called the decision to strike someone with a Taser under those conditions "criminal and reprehensible." They said the Thompson family has "no choice" but to seek justice through a civil jury.
In Feyen's statement about Thompson's death, he said the internal investigation into Lujan's actions was complete and it found that he acted within department policy. Feyen also said they'd use the "challenging case" in training and internal conversations about decision-making, safety priorities, and the consequences of action or inaction.
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