Man sues Columbia officer who shot him after traffic stop. Police dispute his claims
A man who was shot in the back of the head by a Columbia Police Department officer in August is suing the department and the officer.
Sir Brandon Legette filed the federal lawsuit through his lawyer Friday morning.
At a news conference, Legette’s attorney, Marc Brown, called the shooting “an attempted execution.”
“I was just terrified,” said Legette, who stood beside his mother during the conference. “I’m appreciative and thankful to be here today to share my story with you and the truth.”
But the Columbia Police Department has a sharply different version of what happened. In a statement released Friday evening, the department said: “Based on the facts of this case and given the current climate of our country, the narrative provided during that press conference was inaccurate, incomplete and irresponsible.”
The statement notes that Legette faces several charges as a result of the incident, including assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, possession of a stolen pistol, driving under suspension, operating a vehicle without insurance, and use of another vehicle’s license plate.
After an investigation by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the 5th Circuit solicitor’s officer decided not to charge the officer, saying he used necessary force to protect himself, other officers and any bystanders.
Legette’s attorney and Columbia police agree that white officer Sean Rollins shot Legette, a 29-year-old Black man, after Legette was pulled over about 3 a.m. on Aug. 24 near the Food Lion on Broad River Road.
SLED documents show that Rollins’ pulled Legette over for having a paper tag with an illegible date on it.
Legette was homeless at the time and living in his car while working two jobs. He had just gotten off work and had gone to a 24-hour gym to take a shower, his attorney said. Legette pulled into the parking lot of the Food Lion on Broad River Road where he worked. Legette was going to sleep in the parking lot in his car that night because he had a shift at the grocery store in the morning, Brown said.
Rollins had signaled for Legette to stop because of an expired tag and signaling issue, Brown said.
According to the police department, Rollins and other backup officers checked for warrants and found Legette was wanted on two burglary charges. Legette ignored commands from Rollins to get out of the vehicle.
The officer tried to get Legette from his vehicle, and a struggle ensued that “resulted in Legette pulling Officer Rollins further into the vehicle,” the police department said. “Legette then drove away at a high rate of speed with Officer Rollins still hanging partially outside of the vehicle.”
But Legette’s attorney disputes the department’s account. Rollins jumped completely inside the vehicle, Brown said. Rollins was never dragged.
“That’s a fabrication,” Brown said.
Brown described Legette’s vehicle as “rolling” forwards. The vehicle rolled hundreds of feet before crashing into an embankment, Brown said.
The police department said the vehicle crashed “with such force that the air bags were deployed.” The department said Rollins continued to struggle to arrest Legette after the crash.
Brown said that after the crash, Legette laid on his stomach, sprawled across the console with his face down in the passenger seat. The officer began to restrain Legette from behind, including grabbing him around the neck.
As Legette was sprawled over the console, Rollins tried shooting Legette in the back of the head but his gun malfunctioned, Brown said. Rollins pistol-whipped Legette twice in the head even though “Legette wasn’t resisting,” his attorney said.
“The officer had complete control of the situation but he did not have control of himself,” Brown said.
After pistol whipping Legette, Rollins tightened the clip of his gun and shot Legette in the back of the head, according to Brown. The bullet entered behind Legette’s ear and exited above his eye.
“He miraculously survived the gunshot,” Brown said.
The police department’s statement Friday night said Rollins fired his weapon, striking Legette in the head. Both Legette and Rollins were treated at a hospital for injuries sustained in the incident. Rollins was released later that day, and Legette was released Sept. 23.
Investigation
In a video of an interview with Rollins by investigators shown at the new conference, the officer admits to attempting to shoot Legette before his gun malfunctioned, then striking Legette with the gun and shooting him.
Brown called the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division’s investigation into the shooting an “embarrassment.” He’s going to seek a federal investigation.
A spokesperson for SLED said the agency’s “goal in any officer involved shooting investigation is to conduct a thorough independent criminal investigation and to conduct such investigation as timely as is possible under the circumstances.”
“It is standard SLED protocol to notify and provide the FBI our report of any officer involved shooting investigation,” the spokesperson said. “SLED did both in this case and stands by its handling of this matter.”
SLED’s investigation was turned over to the 5th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, which said in a letter to SLED that “the force used by Rollins was necessary to protect himself, fellow officers and any potential innocent bystanders in the area.”
The police department said Legette acknowledged possessing a firearm that officers found on the driver’s side floorboard of the vehicle. The firearm was reported stolen from Ninety-Six in 2017, according to the department’s statement.
Columbia police also said that Legette was out on bond for a 2018 charge of domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature and unlawful neglect of a child. He also had two outstanding arrest warrants for second-degree burglary and petty larceny stemming from a 2018 incident.
Brown, Legette’s attorney, said the focus is getting Rollins out of the Columbia Police Department,
Rollins shouldn’t be able to carry a gun and doesn’t belong as a officer, Brown said.
“Getting his life together”
At the beginning of the conference, Brown hearkened to other violent encounters with police over the past decade, placing Legette’s shooting alongside shootings and killings of Black men and women such as Walter Scott in North Charleston in 2015 and Breonna Taylor in Louisville in March.
Legette was just “getting his life together,” he told SLED agents a couple days after the shooting while he was still hospitalized, per a SLED report on the shooting.
Court records show Legette had faced criminal charges in the three years prior to the night of his shooting.
He was going to pay for car insurance, get the tags for his car and fix the suspension on his driver’s license the next week when he got paid, Legette told officers. He was also about to put a deposit down on a new apartment.
Legette didn’t want to be arrested for the suspended license and other car related issues and ruin the progress in life that he’d made, according to his interview with agents.
He was scared and “feared for his life” when Rollins opened the door and tried to pull him out of the vehicle, Legette told agents. He was carrying a gun in his vehicle under the seat because he was living in the car and wanted protection, Legette said. He worried whether having the gun would lead to a criminal charge and prison.
Legette now lives with his mother in a different county, Brown said. He’s going through therapy and regularly sees a neurologist.
“He was a vibrant young man,” Brown said. But after the shooting, “emotionally he’s a different person.”
Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook said his department understands “the current distrust some feel with law enforcement and is committed to continued accountability, transparency, and growth through community partnerships. We stand at a defining moment in history and each of us must work through meaningful and thoughtful processes to effect positive change and reform.
“We cannot do this if individuals choose to misrepresent facts and provide false narratives in an effort to divide our community. As citizens, we should all demand more.”
This is the second lawsuit filed against the Columbia Police Department by Brown in June.
Earlier in the month, a person sued the department along with other agencies for being shot by police with less-lethal rounds at a peaceful protest after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.
This story was originally published June 26, 2020 at 12:48 PM.