SC family sues trooper over weapons-drawn traffic stop involving three children

A Richland County couple and their three children have filed a federal lawsuit against a South Carolina Highway Patrol trooper and the Department of Public Safety, alleging they were held at gunpoint during a traffic stop based on an unverified 911 tip. The family says the trooper never confirmed their vehicle matched the caller’s description before conducting a felony stop with weapons drawn.

FULL STORY: ‘The most traumatizing day of my life:’ family sues SC trooper after traffic stop

Here are key takeaways:

• Kartrez Rush, Jasmine Scott and their three minor children — ages 4, 6 and 15 — were stopped May 4, 2025, by Trooper Kyle J. Lyman while turning onto Highway 387 from Highway 527 in Sumter County. Rush was hauling supplies for his wife’s event-planning business.

• The stop was based on a 911 call reporting a black Dodge dually truck towing a white trailer with stolen dirt bikes and a four-wheeler. The caller said he learned this from another unidentified person. The Rush family’s truck was a Ram 3500 with five occupants; the BOLO described a vehicle with one male and two females.

• Rush and Scott were ordered out at gunpoint, forced to kneel and lie face-down, then handcuffed, according to the complaint. Officers later removed the children and had them stand roadside. The family was detained for nearly an hour while officers searched the trailer without consent and found nothing.

• Rush’s 15-year-old daughter said she began recording because she had “seen things like this happen on social media before.” She tearfully recalled telling her father, “Dad, why are they pointing guns at us? Are they going to shoot?”

• The lawsuit, filed March 31 in U.S. District Court in Columbia, seeks actual, consequential and punitive damages for alleged unreasonable seizure and excessive force under the Fourth Amendment, plus state-law claims of false imprisonment and negligent training.

• Attorney Tyler Bailey said the trooper “never asked for (Rush’s) driver’s license or registration, never asked if he could search the vehicle, he simply pulled his gun out on the family.” Bailey raised the possibility the 911 caller could have been “swatting” the family.

The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The full story in the link at top was reported, written and edited entirely by journalists.