MISSION, Kan. — A man who was briefly handcuffed in the chaos that followed a deadly shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl rally is suing a Tennessee congressman who falsely accused him in social media posts of being one of the gunmen and a to be an illegal immigrant in the country.
Denton Loudermill Jr., of Olathe, Kansas, filed the federal lawsuit against U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett this week, claiming the comments were “highly offensive, extremely derogatory and defamatory.”
Burchett, a Republican, is serving his third term and represents a district in eastern Tennessee. His spokeswoman, Rachel Partlow, said the office does not comment on pending or active 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 is not among the defendants, is seeking damages of more than $75,000.
The lawsuit says Loudermill froze when gunfire broke out and stood in the middle of the chaos for so long that police put up crime scene tape when he finally walked away.
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 placed him on the sidewalk, where people began taking photos and posting them on social media, the complaint said.
Loudermill was eventually escorted from the area and told he was free to go.
The lawsuit says Loudermill, who was born and raised in the U.S., was never detained, cited or arrested during the shooting. The lawsuit emphasizes that he was not involved and that he did not know any of the teens or young adults who were arguing before gunfire broke out.
But the next day, a photo of Loudermill was posted to Burchett’s account on X, formerly known as Twitter. Above the photo were the words: “One of the shooters at the Kansas City Chiefs victory parade has been identified as an illegal alien.”
A follow-up post on February 18 blamed inaccurate news reports for the identification of “illegal aliens.” But the post, which was included in the lawsuit, still described the handcuffed man sitting on the curb as “one of the shooters.”
The lawsuit alleges that the “false claims” were reposted and widely distributed to more than 1 million people worldwide.
The lawsuit describes Loudermill as a car wash employee — not a public figure — and a “contributing member of his African American family, a family with deep and long roots in his Kansas community.”
According to the lawsuit, he received death threats and experienced periods of “anxiety, agitation and sleep disturbance.”