Yesterday, attorneys for Ian Cuypers, a DoorDash driver who was brutally attacked and tased by Superior Police Department officers during a routine traffic stop, have filed a multi-count federal civil rights lawsuit seeking damages against the City of Superior and multiple SPD officers.
As alleged in the complaint, on February 28, 2024, 22-year-old Cuypers was driving for DoorDash when he accidentally made a wrong turn down a one-way street. Justin Taylor, a probationary SPD officer who had finished field training just two days prior, initiated a traffic stop. Cuypers pulled over immediately, but Taylor nevertheless called for backup and four other SPD officers responded. Taylor and two other officers pointed their firearms at Cuypers, despite lacking any basis to believe that Cuypers was armed or posed a threat or that he had committed anything more than a minor traffic violation. Cuypers complied with the officers’ commands to exit the vehicle and back towards them with his hands up, but the officers continued to unnecessarily escalate the situation, shouting aggressive, at-times conflicting commands. One of the officers, Taylor Gaard, then tased Cuypers in a completely unjustified use of force despite the fact that Cuypers had his hands in the air and posed no threat to the officers or anyone else. Cuypers suffered excruciating pain and was terrified that the officers would kill him.
Afterwards, the officers arrested Cuypers and joked about completing his DoorDash delivery and going viral on TikTok. Taylor tried to cover up the officers’ wrongdoing by citing Cuypers for resisting or obstructing a police officer. A jury acquitted Cuypers of that charge on July 16, 2024.
The incident was captured on body cam, which received hundreds of thousands of views online.
“The officers’ unreasonable escalatory tactics and excessive use of force on an unarmed and non-threatening DoorDash driver who made a simple driving error is shocking and outrageous,” stated Nora Snyder of the People’s Law Office, one of Cuypers’s lawyers. “The officers’ brutality had and continues to have a profoundly damaging effect on Mr. Cuypers’s life.”
Cuypers stated, “This incident was the scariest thing that has ever happened to me. I thought I was going to be killed, and the officers treated it like a big joke. I’m bringing this lawsuit to hold them accountable and to show that it’s not OK for police to treat people the way they treated me.”
The federal civil rights lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin. Cuypers is represented by Attorneys Nora Snyder, Ben Elson, and Brad Thomson with the People’s Law Office based in Chicago. The People’s Law Office has been defending its clients’ constitutional rights and fighting against police violence since 1969.
A copy of the complaint and the videos are available here.
Read more about this case on the Northern News Now.