Colorado city pays $300,000 to settle claims from man intentionally run down by law enforcement

The city of Craig has agreed to pay $300,000 to settle claims brought by a man who suffered major injuries after a law enforcement officer intentionally plowed into him with an SUV.

Tanner Sholes last year filed a federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Denver, alleging the Craig Police Department and the Moffat County Sheriff’s Office violated his constitutional rights on Sept. 22, 2023, when a sheriff’s lieutenant mowed him down in a police vehicle, following a lengthy, low-speed pursuit as Sholes walked along county roads.

Police in rural Colorado plowed into a suspect who had his hands up. The undersheriff who gave the command has since been promoted.

Sholes, who had a BB gun tucked beneath his shirt that day but never pointed it at law enforcement, suffered tears of the ACL, meniscus, rotator cuff and bicep, among other injuries.

The city of 9,000, located 40 miles west of Steamboat Springs, does not admit liability for the incident. It “is only a settlement of disputed claims and done for purely economic reasons,” the Oct. 29 agreement states.

The settlement agreement also includes a provision that Sholes pay an existing medical lien asserted by the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing.

The settlement marks at least the fourth time since 2020 that Craig city officials have paid money to people injured by law enforcement. The Denver Post in July found the city has seen just three police shootings in its recorded history, and they’ve all occurred since 2023 — a per-capita incident rate 20 times higher than Denver’s.

Other recent incidents include police using a Taser on a person while he was staying at his own trailer, causing the man to lose consciousness and suffer a seizure. In another, police twice paid settlements to a man for using excessive force. Officers later shot and killed the man after he pointed a gun at them in the middle of town.

Sholes, as part of the settlement, agreed to drop his claims against two Craig police officers, as well as claims against the city. The lawsuit’s claims against five members of the Moffat County Sheriff’s Office remain ongoing.

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