At Southdale Mall one autumn day in October 2019, Kyle Moore felt he was being chased as he was shopping. “Two homeless guys are asking me to use my phone, originally. I said no to them multiple times, and they just started following me,” Moore said in a phone interview.
He managed to get far away from the people wanting to use his phone and summoned a police officer. Just over an hour later, he was on the way to the hospital, suffering a grand mal seizure, after being chased, tased, and given ketamine. In April, he filed a lawsuit in federal court against the cities of Edina, Richfield, and Bloomington, who all sent officers to detain him, alleging his Fourth Amendment rights were violated.
What happened?
The incident started at around 4:18 p.m. on October 6, 2019, according to a police call log. The call was logged as a mental health psychiatric call, though Moore, who made the call, says he needed to be vague for his safety. “If you have an intruder in your house, you want that to be known. But you can’t really talk if you’re in danger. I didn’t want to get hurt from making a 911 call,” Moore said.
Edina Police Officer Jason Behr was the first to respond to Moore. Behr noted in his report, obtained through a public records request, that Moore was speaking rapidly, was worried about being committed again, and also had a history of mental health issues and was looking to go to a hospital. After conversing with Moore, Behr says Moore ran away from him. Behr himself left to respond to a “priority” call.
Behr’s report notes he returned to Southdale after the “priority” call, backed by two officers, after speaking with Moore’s mother. Behr then finds Moore and chases him. Video from a surveillance camera inside the Southdale Macy’s obtained from Moore’s attorneys shows Moore moving backward with his hands up as officers, aiming an object in their right hand, walk towards Moore. Moore subsequently knocks over a display and runs around the store.
Even though officers say in their reports they issued verbal commands, Moore said they did not. Scared for his life, he began to pray. Jeffrey Martin, another Edina police officer who responded, said in his report that Moore was yelling “religious gibberish back at officers.”
Officers say Moore then threw a jar of jam at Behr. Moore denies this. Video footage from the Macy’s obtained from Moore’s attorneys then show the three officers wrestling Moore to the ground, pinning him, with another officer using a restraint to cuff his ankles and subsequently pinning him.
Behr then says in his report he deployed a taser on him three times. The officers say the taser had no effect, but Moore felt the shocks. “Just start shaking, it’s horrible,” Moore recounted.
Another Edina officer, as well as two officers each from Richfield and Bloomington, then join their colleagues in pinning him, some of them relieving other officers who stopped pinning him. “They just piled up on top of me,” Moore said. Up to ten officers pinned Moore for a sustained period of time, according to video footage, though Moore said 11 officers pinned him.
At some point, his mouth became bloodied. Officers say Moore spat on them. “I was literally gasping for air, and blood was coming out my mouth because they punched me in the face,” Moore said
Paramedics from the Edina Fire Department eventually arrived and administered ketamine. Moore says law enforcement told paramedics to give him ketamine. However, a filing written by an attorney representing the cities of Edina, Richfield and Bloomington says the paramedic was “concerned that Plaintiff’s vigorous resistance and profound agitation could result in life-threatening conditions for the Plaintiff.”
Moore was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center. A filing by his attorneys says he now has a bevy of medical problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder, injuries to the kidney, “high probability of imminent life or limb-threatening deterioration,” as well as a seizure. Moore says he was put in a coma for two days.
Moore wants accountability for what he went through. “These officers are still in power. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth because I was almost murdered. If I were to do that at my job, I’d be fired; if not, put in jail,” Moore said.
Ketamine controversy
Ketamine is a relatively new drug that is used primarily as an anesthetic. It is also used to treat depression and seizures and to keep someone breathing. However, it can also cause seizures and vomiting, as well as decreased heart rate and breathing, according to the American Addiction Centers.
Ketamine is administered in relatively low doses for anesthesia and in even lower doses to address depression. For example, a person weighing 180 pounds, or 81.65 kilograms, would require about 40 milligrams of ketamine to address depression and around 367 milligrams to be sedated for surgery.
Moore‘s attorney, referencing Moore’s medical records, says he was given 500 mg of ketamine. That’s the same dose Elijah McClain received in Colorado from paramedics about six weeks before. McClain was a violinist and bodyworker whose treatment by law enforcement and paramedics received national attention.
McClain died a week later. A paramedic and lieutenant involved were convicted, with the lieutenant being sentenced to five years in prison.
Closer to home, Minneapolis resident Max Johnson was injected with 500 mg of ketamine in 2020 after he experienced a diabetic seizure. He was put on a ventilator for two days. The Star Tribune also reported in 2018 that Hennepin County paramedics sedated people with ketamine, sometimes at the direction of law enforcement, and in some cases enrolled them in a drug trial without their consent.
Though Hennepin Healthcare officials say they ended the study in 2018, a Hennepin Healthcare spokesperson wrote in an email that paramedics continue to use ketamine, among other drugs, to ensure patients don’t hurt themselves.
The Minnesota Department of Health does not track how often paramedics use ketamine to sedate someone. Though they plan to start tracking that use, they don’t have a timeline. “The Health Promotion and Chronic Disease team is working with others to resolve data quality issues that impact our ability to track chemical restraints,” MDH spokesperson Garry Bowman said.