Sarah Schielke - The Life & Liberty Law Office | Officer Summers - Full Unedited Bodycam Video Tasing 75 y.o. Grandpa in his Own Home @LifeLibertyLaw | Uploaded July 2021 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
In the middle of the night on May 30, 2021, two Idaho Springs Police officers (Officer Nicholas Hanning and Officer Ellie Summers) banged on 75-year-old Michael Clark’s apartment door, stormed inside, attacked him, returned to the hallway, and then – while he stood unarmed and in his boxer shorts 8 feet away from them inside his apartment posing no cognizable threat whatsoever – they tased him. Mr. Clark lost consciousness and flew backwards from the tasing, striking his head on a dining room chair on the way down.
His head was split open and bleeding. The officers slammed his head into a shelf and then dragged his body into the hallway for all to see. Not done yet, they then climbed atop his lifeless body, with Officer Hanning putting his knee over and onto Mr. Clark’s head and neck, compressing his airway. They handcuffed him on the ground. He laid there, non-responsive, for 2 minutes and 23 seconds. He was transported to the hospital with his wrists and ankles restrained to the stretcher so that he could not move. The hospital kept Mr. Clark overnight to monitor his heart, which was not well due to the tasing causing elevated troponin levels throughout. On Memorial Day, he began vomiting blood. The day after that, he had a stroke. In the weeks that followed, he had to have a carotid artery surgery, and his appendix burst. He was in and out of the ICU. He requires heart surgery, which doctors are unsure his body will be able to survive.
He was never charged with any crime.
Mr. Clark, a proud father of two and grandfather of seven, enjoyed a rich, happy, independent life prior to this event. On May 30, 2021, that life was recklessly and deliberately obliterated by the Idaho Springs Police Department. Now, 8 weeks later, he remains in a 24-hour complex nursing care facility, awaiting heart surgery and removal of his appendix. He has yet to go home to his own bed and his 2 beloved cats, Marbles and Gracie. Despite a new state law giving the district attorney complete and unfettered discretion to release the bodycam videos of this event, she refused until ordered by a judge. And still even then, as of this writing, is stalling the videos' public release. While doing so, the district attorney and the Idaho Springs Police Department issued press releases painting Mr. Clark not as a victim, but as a crazed person with a "club-like object" who had simply been involved in a "physical altercation." The actions of these agencies re-victimized Mr. Clark and his family, after he had already been, by police officers, stripped of his independence, his security and his health.
Mr. Clark's sole objective in the time he has left is to do whatever it takes to ensure this horrific abuse of a citizen by police does not happen again. That task begins by exposing the truth, and demanding change. With everything he has left, Mr. Clark does so today.
Full unedited bodycam videos (with certain faces blurred in compliance with court order) are available here:
Officer Hanning's BWC: youtu.be/kvTMICY40Hk
Officer Summers' BWC: youtu.be/u6OpLqOvuX8
NOTICE: Sarah Schielke and The Life & Liberty Law Office do authorize the use, reuse, republication and retransmission of any of the linked videos above for public interest and reporting purposes.
Certain faces in this video have been blurred in compliance with a court order.
In the middle of the night on May 30, 2021, two Idaho Springs Police officers (Officer Nicholas Hanning and Officer Ellie Summers) banged on 75-year-old Michael Clark’s apartment door, stormed inside, attacked him, returned to the hallway, and then – while he stood unarmed and in his boxer shorts 8 feet away from them inside his apartment posing no cognizable threat whatsoever – they tased him. Mr. Clark lost consciousness and flew backwards from the tasing, striking his head on a dining room chair on the way down.
His head was split open and bleeding. The officers slammed his head into a shelf and then dragged his body into the hallway for all to see. Not done yet, they then climbed atop his lifeless body, with Officer Hanning putting his knee over and onto Mr. Clark’s head and neck, compressing his airway. They handcuffed him on the ground. He laid there, non-responsive, for 2 minutes and 23 seconds. He was transported to the hospital with his wrists and ankles restrained to the stretcher so that he could not move. The hospital kept Mr. Clark overnight to monitor his heart, which was not well due to the tasing causing elevated troponin levels throughout. On Memorial Day, he began vomiting blood. The day after that, he had a stroke. In the weeks that followed, he had to have a carotid artery surgery, and his appendix burst. He was in and out of the ICU. He requires heart surgery, which doctors are unsure his body will be able to survive.
He was never charged with any crime.
Mr. Clark, a proud father of two and grandfather of seven, enjoyed a rich, happy, independent life prior to this event. On May 30, 2021, that life was recklessly and deliberately obliterated by the Idaho Springs Police Department. Now, 8 weeks later, he remains in a 24-hour complex nursing care facility, awaiting heart surgery and removal of his appendix. He has yet to go home to his own bed and his 2 beloved cats, Marbles and Gracie. Despite a new state law giving the district attorney complete and unfettered discretion to release the bodycam videos of this event, she refused until ordered by a judge. And still even then, as of this writing, is stalling the videos' public release. While doing so, the district attorney and the Idaho Springs Police Department issued press releases painting Mr. Clark not as a victim, but as a crazed person with a "club-like object" who had simply been involved in a "physical altercation." The actions of these agencies re-victimized Mr. Clark and his family, after he had already been, by police officers, stripped of his independence, his security and his health.
Mr. Clark's sole objective in the time he has left is to do whatever it takes to ensure this horrific abuse of a citizen by police does not happen again. That task begins by exposing the truth, and demanding change. With everything he has left, Mr. Clark does so today.
Full unedited bodycam videos (with certain faces blurred in compliance with court order) are available here:
Officer Hanning's BWC: youtu.be/kvTMICY40Hk
Officer Summers' BWC: youtu.be/u6OpLqOvuX8
NOTICE: Sarah Schielke and The Life & Liberty Law Office do authorize the use, reuse, republication and retransmission of any of the linked videos above for public interest and reporting purposes.
Certain faces in this video have been blurred in compliance with a court order.
