MISSION, Kan. — A man who was briefly handcuffed but not charged in the shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl rally is suing three more lawmakers over social media posts falsely accusing him of being among the shooters and illegally in to be immigrants to the country.
Denton Loudermill Jr. of Olathe, Kansas, filed nearly identical federal lawsuits Tuesday against three Republican Missouri state senators: Rick Brattin of Harrisonville, Denny Hoskins of Warrensburg and Nick Schroer of St. Charles County.
According to the complaints, Loudermill has suffered “humiliation, embarrassment, insult and inconvenience” because of the “highly offensive” messages.
Loudermill made similar allegations last week in a lawsuit filed against U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, a Republican from Tennessee.
Schroer and Hoskins declined to comment, and Brattin did not immediately respond to a text message seeking comment Wednesday. A spokeswoman for Burchett said last week that the congressman’s office does not discuss pending litigation.
The February 14 shooting outside the historic Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri, killed a well-known DJ and injured more than twenty others, including many children.
Loudermill, who was never cited or arrested in the shooting, is seeking at least $75,000 in damages in each of the lawsuits.
According to the charges, Loudermill froze so long after gunfire broke out that police had time to put up crime scene tape. As he tried to go under the tape to leave, officers stopped him and told him he was moving “too slow.”
They handcuffed him and put him on the sidewalk, where people started taking pictures and posting them on social media. Loudermill was eventually escorted from the area and told he was free to go.
But messages soon appeared on the lawmakers’ accounts on
Loudermill, who was born and raised in the U.S., received death threats even though he was not involved in the shooting, according to the complaints.
The lawsuit described him as a “contributing member of his African American family, a family with deep and long roots in his Kansas community.”