The family of a 26-year-old man shot three times in the back while running from a Colorado Springs policeman has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the police department and the officer.
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Alex Martinez-Sarmiento was shot early July 5, 2025, outside the Mansion Nightclub in downtown Colorado Springs. Denver attorneys Andy McNulty and Mari Newman filed the lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court.
Martinez-Sarmiento “was a father, a son, a brother, and a friend,” the attorneys said in a statement.
The lawsuit claims the shooting is part of a pattern of excessive force by the Colorado Springs Police Department. A spokesman said the department can’t comment on pending or active litigation.
Martinez-Sarmiento was shot after police responded to the report of a disturbance downtown, according to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Department, which investigated the shooting.
When officers approached, Martinez-Sarmiento turned and ran and reached toward his waistband. Officer Connor Wallick shot Martinez-Sarmiento, who died at the scene.
in El Paso County ruled the shooting was justified because Wallick believed the young man was going for a gun and that a Taser or a less-lethal response would be inadequate.
The lawsuit says Martinez-Sarmiento posed no imminent threat to Wallick or anybody else and that the officer’s “use of deadly force was grossly excessive.” The shooting is one of a series of excessive-force incidents by Colorado Springs police, the lawsuit claims.
The complaint lists 13 incidents in which the attorneys say people were killed or injured by Colorado Springs police officers who used excessive force. In several of the cases, the city of Colorado Springs paid substantial sums to settle misconduct claims, attorneys said.
However, the Martinez-Sarmiento case makes it clear the police department “has yet to adequately train and supervise its officers regarding the appropriate and legal use of force, or to otherwise ensure that the clear ongoing custom and practice of police misconduct ceased,” the attorneys contend.
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“Something is profoundly wrong when a young man of color cannot walk the streets of Colorado Springs without being gunned down by the police,” Newman said in a statement. “Alex Martinez-Sarmiento cooperated with every command issued by Officer Wallick and raised his hands when ordered, showing that he was holding nothing but a cigarette.”
In its decision not to pursue charges in Martinez-Sarmiento’s death, the district attorney’s office said Colorado Springs officers responded to a report on July 5, 2025, of a man yelling and brandishing a firearm near a nightclub. Police went to the 100 block of Pikes Peak Avenue.
One group of people said they hadn’t seen anyone with a gun. Wallick checked a report of an altercation between other groups of people. He received surveillance photos of a person later identified as Martinez-Sarmiento with a gun, according to the district attorney’s report.
Wallick believed Martinez-Sarmiento had retrieved a weapon from a car and was going to menace others outside the nightclub, the district attorney’s office said. Wallick then approached him on foot, drew his gun and told Martinez-Sarmiento to raise his hands.
After starting to comply, Martinez-Sarmiento turned around and ran. Wallick told him to stop running. The officer fired his gun three times when it looked like Martinez-Sarmiento was reaching into his waistband for a weapon, according to the district attorney’s report.
A semi-automatic firearm loaded with an extended magazine was recovered from the suspect’s pant leg by another officer, the report said.
The lawsuit disputes the officer’s version of events. The attorneys wrote that the description by a 911 caller of a man screaming at people and carrying a weapon didn’t match Martinez-Sarmiento. The caller described a Black man with a rifle.
Wallick gave no warning that he was about to use deadly force, the attorneys said in a statement. Martinez-Sarmiento didn’t point or fire a gun, they said. Other officers chasing the young man didn’t fire “because none of them perceived him as a threat,” according to the attorneys.
The attorneys are seeking an undisclosed amount of compensation and a jury trial.
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