KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A prominent Knoxville activist is suing the city and Knox County after they said they were beaten during a January 2022 arrest. The arrest was during a public meeting to discuss the selection of a new police chief to replace then-Chief Eve Thomas.
The lawsuit was filed with "David Hayes" as the plaintiff. They previously ran for a spot on the Knoxville City Council and were a founding force of the City Council Movement, a group of activists in the city.
Nzinga Bayano Amani, previously known as David Hayes, filed the lawsuit on January 7th, 2023 — a year after the arrest. In it, they said they attended the meeting soon after the death of Robert Bailey, a man who died while in Knoxville Police Department custody.
After meeting with city officials and other advocates, Amani said they left the small assembly room to visit a police officer. They said they walked toward metal detectors where the officer was last seen.
Then, they said a Knox County Sheriff's Office deputy grabbed their arm from behind and twisted it, saying they were under arrest. Amani said it was the same deputy who in 2014 was cleared to return to duty after a viral video showed him choking a University of Tennessee student.
Amani said they did not resist arrest, but did shout for other attendees of the meeting to leave the room and document the arrest. They said their legs were hogtied and they were carried facedown across the sky bridge from the main lobby, within the City-County Building.
Amani said that the deputies were also holding them by their sweater, which wrapped around their neck and started to choke them. Amani said they lost consciousness near the end of the sky bridge.
They said they were taken to a holding room with a window looking out to the main lobby room. Amani said they were sat on a chair and soon after, the deputy who initially grabbed them started "aggressively pressing his body" on them.
According to the lawsuit, the deputy then shoved Amani's head against the wall and back before pressing their face and neck. The suit also alleges that the deputy then started spitting at them and punched them multiple times in the face.
Amani said they later learned they were arrested on an eight-month-old warrant stemming from a demonstration following the police shooting of Anthony Thompson Jr. in Austin-East High School, where police say Amani and some others were blocking the road near KPD headquarters.
Amani said he was never informed of the warrant and could have been served at any time over the eight months leading to the January 2022 arrest.
A riot charge connected to that warrant was later dropped in May 2022.
"In fact, over the course of those eight months, Plaintiff attended numerous events within the City in which KPD officers were also in attendance," the lawsuit said. "No one tried to serve [them] an arrest warrant."
The lawsuit asks that a court say that the officers and deputies acted unconstitutionally and give an injunction preventing them from future conduct like it. It also asks for monetary damages and demands a jury in the case.
The Knox County Sheriff's Office, Knoxville Police Department and the City of Knoxville said they would not comment on the lawsuit.