A man was found dead as debris from a police pursuit in Lexington was cleared. Estate sues KSP.

A police pursuit that resulted in the death of a Lexington homeless man who was an innocent bystander is the subject of a federal lawsuit against Kentucky State Police.

Anthony Tyrone Moore, 57, died after he was struck and killed by a stolen truck driven by Nathaniel Harper in August 2017. Harper, 40, led police on a five-county chase before he lost control and his truck hit Moore where the latter was sleeping in a yard on Old Georgetown Street, police said previously.

Howard Sweat, the stepfather of Moore and the administrator of Moore’s estate, filed the lawsuit to recover damages and “to deter the irresponsible law enforcement conduct that caused” the death.

“The police pursuit that caused Mr. Moore’s death violated KSP pursuit policy and just plain common sense, and shocks the conscience,” the complaint says.

Named as defendants are state police Commissioner Richard W. Sanders, Deputy Commissioner William Alexander Payne, and Todd Kidd, commander of Kentucky State Police Post 12 in Frankfort. Also sued are five “John Does,” troopers whose identities will be learned as the lawsuit progresses.

State police did not immediately respond Wednesday or Thursday to requests for comment about the lawsuit, but a spokesman said in 2017 that officers followed pursuit rules in continuing the chase. Harper was charged with murder, receiving stolen property and fleeing or evading police.

The suit says Harper had not committed an offense that justified the risks of a high-speed pursuit.

On Aug. 29, 2017, a woman called Lawrenceburg 911 to report that a black Dodge truck has been stolen from her driveway. Police in neighboring Shelby County found the truck traveling east on Interstate 64. A traffic stop was attempted but the truck sped off.

A trooper pursued the truck, which reached speeds of 100 mph during the chase. Another trooper deployed a device that deflated both front tires. The truck slowed but continued to travel eastbound. The truck then got off the interstate and traveled toward Lexington on Newtown Pike with deflated front tires.

At 2:26 a.m., the truck lost control on Newtown Pike, crossed the median and the truck rolled over a couple of times before coming to rest in a yard of a house. Harper was pulled from the truck and Lexington firefighters extinguished the flames in the truck.

When moving the truck and clearing debris, police found Moore’s body next to a house. It’s not clear why Moore was in that particular spot.

State police policy prohibits a pursuit from continuing solely because the driver continues to flee, the suit says. The policy also prohibits the pursuing officer from exceeding the posted speed limit in a commercial area, residential area, school zone or any road where the posted speed limit is less than 55 mph, unless otherwise authorized by a supervisor.

The policy requires that a pursuit end under those circumstances unless it is conducted for a violent felony offense or supervisory approval is granted. The time of day and amount of traffic are allowable considerations.

A collision report said the posted speed limit was 35 mph in the area where Moore died, and the estimated travel speed of the pursuit was between 80 and 100 mph, according to the complaint.

A 2015 USA Today investigation found that police chases “killed nearly as many people as justifiable police shootings, according to government figures, which are widely thought to undercount fatal shootings.”

The Justice Department called pursuits “the most dangerous of all ordinary police activities” in 1990 and “urged police departments to adopt policies listing exactly when officers can and cannot pursue someone,” USA Today reported.

In Kentucky, 171 people were killed in police pursuits between 1979 and 2013, according to the USA Today analysis, including three officers, 99 fleeing drivers and 69 citizens who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This story was originally published October 4, 2018 at 12:46 PM.