Family of man killed on I-25 files suit against Larimer County deputy

David Thompson didn’t know how his son ended up prone on the highway in the path of an oncoming SUV until weeks after he died. Now the family is suing a Larimer County Sheriff's Office deputy for his role in his son's death.

Brent Thompson, 28, was killed Feb. 18, 2023 when he was hit with a stun-gun blast and collapsed on I-25, unable to move.

Thompson found out the truth when he watched the horrific scene recorded on Deputy Lorenzo Lujan's body-worn camera video in his own living room.

"This officer had no idea what he was doing,” Thompson said. “He chased my kid into the middle of I-25.”

Thompson’s ex-wife, Karen, said she was told by a deputy and a victim’s advocate who showed up at her door at 3 a.m., Feb. 19 that Brent had died in a traffic accident. She said that they did not mention that he couldn't move out of the way of the SUV barreling down on him because incapacitated.

“It makes me lose my breath, the though of my son dying watching a car come at him,” she said.

Tuesday, the Thompsons filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Larimer County District Court against Lujan, the sheriff deputy who tased their son, claiming that the officer should have known that tasing a person in the middle of a highway “in the dark of night is a death sentence.”

The Thompsons are represented by Denver law firm Rathod Mohamedbhai LLC. Family members spoke to the media at a news conference there.

Lawsuits like the one against Lujan were enabled as part of policing reform measures in Colorado Senate Bill 217, which passed by a wide margin in the summer of 2020 in the wake of George Floyd's murder. These lawsuits have a provision against police officers who violate a person's rights under the state constitution or who fail to intervene to stop a violation. Qualified immunity, which shields officers in federal lawsuits from liability, does not apply under SB 217.

The claim accuses Lujan of using excessive force when he used a stun-gun on the 28-year-old.

The Thompsons' are asking for their sons' medical and funeral expenses and also damages for pain and suffering from the grief over his death.

Even 13 months later, Karen Thompson cannot bring herself to watch the 20-minute footage of Brent's last moments. Still, she thinks of him "every single day. It shatters my heart."

Brent Thompson was fleeing an impending arrest when he jumped a guardrail, stumbled into the northbound lanes of I-25 at Mountain View and was tased by Lujan, which left him stunned and unable to remove himself from the life-threatening position for five seconds.

It was time enough for an unknowing driver, going home to Wellington to travel the 533 to 615 feet to where Thompson lay on the highway traveling at least 75-miles-per hour, according to investigators.

Thompson was hit and then run over by the SUV. Though deputies pulled him off of the road and tried to revive him, he died of blunt force injuries to his torso.

Last July, a Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT) investigation found that while Lujan showed “poor judgment, and possibly a need for additional and more robust training,” his actions the night of Feb. 18, 2023, were not criminal.

In his decision letter, 8th Judicial District Attorney Gordon McLaughlin said that Lujan did not use deadly force when he used the stun gun.

The driver of the Ford Explorer whose wife and three kids were with him, voluntarily pulled over and was not charged in the incident, which he described during police interviews as “a two-second reaction.” He told CIRT investigators that he saw the lights of police cars and two people standing off to the side of the lane and then “hit something.”

The driver remains unidentified because he was not named in court documents.

The two figures he described were two officers who were chasing Thompson. One of the officers tried to alert the driver with a flashlight, but it was too late. The entire incident from the time Thompson bolted to the second he was hit took less than a minute-and-a-half, the video shows.

The autopsy report found that Thompson had an "extraordinarily high" level of fentanyl in his system. A friend who was interviewed said that Thompson took one pill and she gave him three more, according to the 36-page CIRT document.

Investigators found seven cellphones and a Sig Sauer 1911 handgun in the car Thompson was driving, which belonged to David Thompson. Brent Thompson was not allowed to have a gun, as he had a prior felony, according to the CIRT investigation.

Blake Stacey, 40, said that despite his brother's past criminal history, he didn't deserve to die, describing the death as an execution.

"One-hundred per-cent, he wouldn't have died if the cop hadn't have tased him. Why not just let him run and catch him later?" he asked.

When Lujan pulled Thompson over on an I-25 off-ramp, he gave Lujan a fake name, and the deputy also learned Thompson had a revoked driver’s license. Thompson also had an active warrant for violating pretrial release terms in a low-level drug case.

When Lujan started to tell Thompson he was under arrest, Thompson ran away across a grassy embankment toward the highway.

The Larimer County Sheriffs office did not return a phone call requesting Deputy Lojan's status, nor did they supply a comment on this case.