A man who was ran over by a Tacoma police officer in 2021 at a downtown street-racing event sued the city and the officer, who is now retired, on Friday.
The complaint claims that Tacoma police officer Khanh Phan drove into a crowd of pedestrians at an unlawful street-racing event in January 2021 and ran over 24-year-old Anthony Huff-McKay of Tacoma. Phan was in his patrol vehicle on duty.
The patrol car was encircled by scores of people near Pacific Avenue and South Ninth Street in multiple event footage. Phan momentarily reversed before driving into the throng as some crowd members impeded the SUV’s route.
The suit alleges Phan encountered those near the crossroads and tensions increased as he tried to drive through them with his patrol cruiser. Instead of reversing and deescalating the situation, he drove into the gathering and hit many individuals, who collapsed.
Phan told detectives he was immobilized by terror, The News-Tribune said.
“At that moment I was certain that I was seconds away from dying at the hands of the angry crowd if I remained there any longer,” Phan wrote in 2021. “The mob clearly wanted to beat me or set my car on fire with me inside.”