A federal judge must decide whether a man shot by a Hampton police officer in early 2022 can proceed with a $20 million lawsuit against the officer.
Christopher Clayton Rice, now 33, was wielding a baseball bat at a Ford dealership in the city’s Coliseum area when nervous workers called police.
During a standoff after officers arrived, the lawsuit says, a police sergeant “lunged” at Rice in an attempt to take the bat from him. But Rice struck the sergeant in the head with the bat as she approached.
That’s when Hampton officer Bryan Wilson shot Rice five times, hitting him in the chest, thigh and forearm. The sergeant, Katherine Novak, and Rice were hospitalized — Novak for a day and Rice for roughly one week.
The federal lawsuit, filed in January in U.S. District Court in Newport News, contends Wilson used excessive force.
The lawsuit says Wilson was alone in pulling his handgun, as others officers drew Tasers. Another Hampton officer reported later that he would have “gotten physical” with Rice before Wilson began shooting.
“Every reasonable officer in (Wilson’s) position would have concluded that the force used against Plaintiff was excessive, unjustifiable, and unlawful,” said the lawsuit, filed by South Carolina attorney Bakari Sellers with Norfolk attorney Andrew Protogyrou.
The lawsuit contends Wilson violated Rice’s constitutional rights.
But the Hampton City Attorney’s Office, which is defending Wilson in the case, contends it’s “undisputed” that Rice had assaulted Novak with a deadly weapon when the officer fired.
“There is no question that a reasonable officer, at the moment that Officer Wilson used force, would have had reason to believe that (Rice) posed a threat to Sgt. Novak,” Hampton Senior Deputy City Attorney Brandi A. Law wrote in a motion to dismiss.
Senior U.S. Distict Judge Rebecca Beach Smith must now decide whether the lawsuit can move forward.
The shooting is captured on body-worn cameras from the police officers.
A week after he was shot, Rice was charged with felony assault on a law enforcement officer and trespassing at the Ford dealership. But in November 2023, he was found not guilty of both charges by reason of insanity.
Separately, Hampton Commonwealth’s Attorney Anton Bell cleared Wilson of any criminal wrongdoing in the shooting. Bell termed Wilson’s actions an “absolutely justified act of defense of another.”
The prosecutor said he cleared Wilson verbally — rather than in a written report — because the conclusion was “extremely clear.”
Police responded at 11:04 a.m. on Jan. 4, 2022, to a call about “a disorderly subject armed with a bat” in the parking lot of Wynne Ford on West Mercury Boulevard, one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares.
The workers locked the doors “and retreated to the back of the business where they were out of sight,” then-Police Chief Mark Talbot said.
Arriving officers spoke with Rice, and he wouldn’t put the bat down, Talbot said. They called Novak, who has more than 25 years with the force, to try to de-escalate the situation.
“She spoke … in a very calm voice,” Talbot said. “Trying to encourage him to put down the baseball bat. Over and over again. She made no threats.”
Rice didn’t say anything in response, Talbot said, but at one point “he moved the bat in what appeared to be a threatening manner,” and then “swung the bat and struck the sergeant in the head.”
Wilson fired five rounds. Rice’s wounds were considered life threatening, Talbot said. Novak, meantime, had a “serious.” but non-critical injury.
Talbot maintained at the time there was nothing indicating to officers Rice was going through a mental health crisis.
But the lawsuit has a different take on that.
Rice had come to the dealership about a week earlier to look at a Ford Mustang, the lawsuit said. But he gave workers an “uneasy feeling,” and police ended up escorting him off the property.
Though Rice returned with the bat a week later, he wasn’t being aggressive, the lawsuit maintained. At one point, the suit noted, he put down the bat, leaned up against a Mustang and smoked a cigarette.
At 11:14 a.m., Wilson told other officers by radio that Rice was in front of the business and “appeared to be having a mental health crisis,” the lawsuit said. Rice suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, though was not taking his medication.
Rice later held the bat in a downward position as four or five offficers followed him around the business four times.
Wilson called for a supervisor at 11:25 a.m., with Novak arriving five minutes later. As she slowly approached Rice, the lawsuit said, he “raised the bat and rested it on his right shoulder.”
While up to three officers pulled out their Tasers, Wilson drew his handgun “and pointed it at or towards” Rice, the lawsuit said.
“The sergeant continued approaching Plaintiff and ultimately lunged towards him in an attempt to take the bat.”
Rice moved the bat from one hand to the other “before swinging the bat at the sergeant with one hand, striking her in the head,” the suit says. After Wilson shot him, officers gave him first aid.
The lawsuit says Wilson wasn’t properly trained in proper de-escalation for mental health issues, the lawsuit said, or didn’t apply that training.
The city’s motion to dismiss says Rice was trespassing on private property and refused to comply with officers’ commands.
“The fact that Plaintiff ultimately did swing and struck Sergeant Novak in the head proves that Officer Wilson’s suspicion that deadly force may become necessary was, indeed, correct.”
Wilson is no longer with the Hampton Police, leaving to take a police job in Tennessee. Novak remains a sergeant.
Peter Dujardin, 757-897-2062, pdujardin@dailypress.com
