HUNTINGTON – A Michigan man says he was shot in the eye with a TASER by a Huntington police officer, leaving him permanently blinded in his right eye.
Andre D. Jones filed his complaint February 6 in federal court against Huntington Police Department officer Jordan Daubenmire, Police Chief Phil Watkins, the City of Huntington, a dozen other named HPD officers and 10 unnamed defendants.
According to the complaint, HPD officers were dispatched to a domestic dispute on Buffington Avenue early in the morning of January 27, 2024. In body camera footage, Daubenmire says they were to look for a “Black male, gray and green something, facial hair, blue jeans.”
Haslam
| Courtesy photo
The complaint says the officers knew the name of the suspect. The complaint only identifies him as I.W., and it says he is about 10 years younger than Jones and “the two do not resemble each other.” Both Jones and I.W. are Black.
Daubenmire says he first saw Jones headed east on 7th Avenue and claims to have proceeded past Jones on 7th Avenue before turning his vehicle around, according to the complaint. After Daubenmire exited his cruiser, footage shows the first words he uttered were, “You better f---ing stop” followed seconds later by “HPD.”
Footage shows Daubenmire moving between houses before breaking into a sprint. At one point, he can be heard asking, “Where’s he at, Holley?” He is referring to HPD officer Timothy Holley Jr., another defendant.
“Daubenmire’s decision to utilize his TASER came long before he fired his first shots,” the complaint states. “Daubenmire pulled his TASER from its holster, at the latest, at 6:11:27 a.m. The reflection of the TASER’s aiming lasers can be seen on his bodyworn camera footage at that time. Notably, no suspect could be seen on the film.
“Daubenmire continued running with his TASER drawn, as evidenced by the green and red laser aiming dots on his bodyworn camera footage. At 6:11:35 a.m., Daubenshire tells Holley, while they’re running and with nobody else around, ‘Tase his ass, Holley.’”
About 24 seconds later, Jones is first seen on the body cam footage when Daubenmire turns a corner around a porch and raises his TASER to fire at Jones, according to the complaint. Jones was facing away and walking from Daubenmire, according to the complaint, posing “no threat to officer safety.”
“Daubenmire gave no audible indication to Mr. Jones that he was going to discharge his TASER,” the complaint states. “Daubenmire’s fist shot from the TASER occurred at approximately 6:11:59 a.m.”
A screen capture is included in the complaint.
“Mr. Jones is clearly facing away from Daubenmire, can be seen walking completely upright and cannot be identified to match the description of the suspect for whom officers were looking,” the complaint states, adding Daubenmire’s second shot was taken one second after the first one. “Because Mr. Jones had the hood of his jacket up and was facing away from Daubenmire, it was impossible for Daubenmire to see Mr. Jones’s facial hair or to know his race.
“Daubenmire took no steps to identify that the person he was shooting matched the description of the suspect who he was chasing, I.W. … Contrary to what Daubenmire swore to in the criminal complaint against Mr. Jones and his statements made to his supervisors in an After-Action Review, there was not enough time for the first shot to achieve neuromuscular incapacitation.
“Daubenmire’s bodyworn camera footage clearly shows that his second shot was taken as Mr. Jones was falling to the ground and when Mr. Jones turned his head to see what was going on behind him. The green laser, which denotes the top prong of the TASER 7 utilized by Daubenmire, was clearly trained on Mr. Jones’s face. Daubenmire’s bodyworn camera footage clearly shows that Daubenmire was aiming at Mr. Jones’s head, which is against all TASER training protocols.”
The complaint says the use of the TASER also was against an HPD order that says it “can be used to control or subdue individuals an officer can articulate as being violent or potentially violent when deadly force does not appear to be justified.”
“Daubenmire attempted to justify his wrongful conduct after the fact by stating that the first cartridge ‘was ineffective’ instead of acknowledging his immediate ‘double-tap,’” the complaint states. “Daubenmire’s double-tap was the result of an overly aggressive officer and an overemphasis on firearms training versus proper training on TASER deployment.”
After Jones fell to the ground, the complaint says Daubenmire and Holley leapt on top of him and began placing him in handcuffs. Jones started asking what he had done wrong.
“Holley, in clear surprise, responded, ‘This ain’t him?’” the complaint states. “Daubenmire … then asked Holley, “He match the description?” … before radioing, ‘We need a supervisor.’”
The complaint also notes that, at this time, Daubenmire’s speech is labored because he had run about 885 feet in about 80 seconds. It also says Jones’s speech is not labored, indicating he had not been physically exerting himself before being shot.
Daubenmire again asks Holley if Jones matched the description just as Jones tells officers they “hit (him) in the eye,” the complaint states.
Officer Joe Denning, another defendant, then arrives at the scene with a police dog that was whining, according to the complaint.
“Ah, quit it,” Denning tells the K9 officer. “You missed your fun.”
A few moments later after the officers talked and made phone calls, Jones told Daubenmire he had seen a man “duck behind a building.” Daubenmire claimed Jones was the one who had ducked behind the building, but Jones denied it.
When officer Jonah Mathis arrived, Daubenmire told him, “This ain’t even him. This ain’t the domestic guy. … Matched the description, don’t he? Blue jeans, facial hair.”
Mathis responded “exasperatedly” with a long drawn-out version of the F word before Daubenmire took Jones back to his patrol car, promised medical care and asked him, “You good? Other than that thing in your eye?”
“In recounting his story with Holley, Daubenmire caused Mathis to ask, ‘So you guys were watching two different people?’” the complaint states. “Holley responded, ‘I never had eyes on him.’ At that point, Daubenmire tells Mathis … “I came down 7th Avenue. I passed him. They said, ‘Black male, gray and green something, facial hair, blue jeans.’ Daubenmire then acknowledged he saw Mr. Jones and assumed that Mr. Jones was I.W. … because ‘Descriptions are off sometimes.’”
Officer Justin Maynard, another defendant, asked Daubenmire if he had called to get EMS to the scene.
“F--- that,” he replied, according to the complaint. “They can meet us at headquarters.”
Mathis continued asking Daubenmire about the prong striking Jones in the eye.
“I think I ripped it out,” Daubenmire said, according to the complaint. “Mathis is heard saying, ‘Yeah, f--- him (referring to Mr. Jones).’”
The complaint says that more than 15 minutes after Jones had been shot, EMS still hadn’t been called. Instead of receiving medical treatment, he was taken to HPD headquarters. He still was handcuffed. The complaint also says two necklaces Jones was wearing – that can be seen in video footage – never have been returned to him more than a year later.
EMS arrived at HPD headquarters shortly after Jones arrived with the officers.
“Even though Mr. Jones was finally receiving needed medical care, Denning made the members of the Cabell County Emergency Medical Services stop treating Mr. Jones so that he could take photographs,” the complaint states.
Maynard then took Jones to Cabell Huntington Hospital. They arrived at 6:55 a.m. He later was transported to J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown. He underwent surgery, and he had further eye care in Pontiac, Michigan. He never regained vision in his right eye and was in constant pain. He had a surgical evisceration on his eye in August to remove part of his eye.
Jones later learned Daubenmire had filed a criminal complaint charging him with fleeing. That complaint was dismissed on May 7, 2024.
The complaint also says Holley’s body cam footage was not preserved.
Jones accuses Daubenmire and Holley of excessive force as well as unlawful search and seizure. Also, he claims continued unlawful search and seizure by all of the officers at the scene, failure to render aid by all of the officers at the scene, failure to intervene by all of the officers at the scene other than Daubenmire and Holley, unlawful detention by all of the officers at the scene, deprivation of property, civil conspiracy, malicious prosecution, state law battery, state law intentional and/or negligent spoliation of evidence, state law assault, negligence, state law negligent training and supervision, state law intentional and/or negligent infliction of emotional distress and state constitutional violation.
He also accuses the city of failure to hire, train and supervise as well as for customs, policies and practices causing violations of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Jones seeks compensatory damages, punitive damages, court costs, attorney fees, pre- and post-judgment interests and other relief.
He is being represented by Tyler C. Haslam of Haslam Law Firm in Huntington working with Keller Swan in College Park, Georgia. The defendants are being represented by Lee Murray Hall, Michael A. Frye and Steven P. Turner of Jenkins Fenstermaker in Huntington. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Robert C. “Chuck” Chambers.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number 3:25-cv-00074