Post by WaTcHeR on Mar 6, 2006 11:21:43 GMT -5
03/06/2006 - LAS VEGAS A retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and his wife are seeking $5 million in damages from police, who he claims overreacted to a family member's report that he was suicidal and had guns in the house.
A North Las Vegas police spokesman acknowledges SWAT officers burst through a glass door of the house in an affluent neighborhood and that Thomas Spear was cut.
But he insists police acted appropriately after five hours watching Spear slumped over a kitchen table in March 2004.
Spear's 57 -- a former pilot and Nellis Air Force Base fighter squadron commander.
He says he took too much medication after brain surgery and didn't know police were outside his house.
A lawyer for Thomas and Linda Spear says police acted like they were engaged in some kind of exercise.
A North Las Vegas police spokesman acknowledges SWAT officers burst through a glass door of the house in an affluent neighborhood and that Thomas Spear was cut.
But he insists police acted appropriately after five hours watching Spear slumped over a kitchen table in March 2004.
Spear's 57 -- a former pilot and Nellis Air Force Base fighter squadron commander.
He says he took too much medication after brain surgery and didn't know police were outside his house.
A lawyer for Thomas and Linda Spear says police acted like they were engaged in some kind of exercise.