TACOMA, Wash. — A claim filed Thursday against the City of Tacoma allleges police acted "negligently" during an interaction with a shooting suspect days before he shot and paralyzed a man last year.
According to the Tacoma Police Department, Jay Barbour, owner of Mediterranean Gyro Grill locations in Federal Way and Tacoma, called 911 and reported he “could not feel his legs” following a drive-by shooting on June 23, 2022.
Police said an SUV pulled up alongside Barbour’s vehicle and began yelling at him for driving too slowly. A handgun was fired from the SUV, striking Barbour and severing his spine.
Mason Taylor, 20 at the time of the shooting, pleaded guilty to first-degree assault earlier this year. Prosecutors dropped a drive-by shooting count as part of a plea deal.
The claims says Tacoma police officers acted “unreasonably, negligently, and dangerously” in an incident involving Taylor just five days before he shot Barbour.
According to the claim, Tacoma police recovered a handgun used during a shooting at a party on June 18, 2022, and linked it to Taylor. Taylor reportedly told police that the gun belonged to his brother and denied shooting the victim in that incident.
The claim also alleges that police officers gave the handgun back to Taylor by leaving it on a street curb “supposedly to hold for his brother.” It argues Taylor could not legally possess a handgun and stressed that he was being investigated for the shooting.
Ballistic evidence indicates Taylor used this same handgun to shoot Barbour, the lawsuit said.
“Giving a gun back to a criminal suspect in a shooting is beyond negligent. It’s beyond reckless. It’s crazy,” said Barbour’s attorney Mark Lindquist.
Lindquist said the police could have gotten the gun off the street for good that night.
"The officer actually set the gun on the sidewalk for the suspect to pick up after officers left," Lindquist said. "In a time of rising crime and escalating violence, it just makes absolutely no sense to leave a handgun behind on the curb for a suspect to pick up.”
The $23 million claim against the city said Barbour is paralyzed from the chest down and he and "his family have suffered emotionally, physically, and financially." It said Barbour and his family felt the reduced sentence was too lenient.
“Justice will come in our civil case,” said Lindquist. “Jay and his family want justice. They want accountability. And they want to make sure police officers don’t return guns to criminal suspects ever again.”