RICHMOND — A Black cowboy from Richmond on Wednesday announced the filing of a legal claim against the city, alleging its police officers violently threw him to the ground and pinned him there in apparent retaliation for filming them and talking back to a sergeant.
Kwesi Guss said the officers left him with head trauma, bruised ribs and back pain from the May 5 encounter, which came as Guss filmed officers while they arrested someone else at the end of a high-speed chase, according to the legal claim. Such claims typically lay the groundwork for lawsuits against a government entity.
The injuries that Guss suffered that night have kept him from returning to his job as as a professional cowboy — meaning he has yet to go back to training horses, riding in rodeos and giving children horseback-riding lessons. Flanked by three fellow Black cowboys sitting on horses near the corner where the confrontation happened, he said that he continues to have pain in his wrists.
“I’ve been having nightmares, bad dreams, hearing police sirens, hearing the officers saying ‘You ain’t nothing but a f—ing cowboy,’” Guss said, referencing a statement that he claims one of the officers told him while they pinned him to the ground.
The officers’ conduct were “outrageous,” said Guss’ attorney, John Burris, who stressed the officers’ actions were “a throwback to a time I thought we had resolved.” The claim alleges numerous misdeeds, including assault, battery, false imprisonment and violations of Guss’ right to free speech and assembly.
“This was a cop who was out of control,” Burris said on Wednesday. In a statement earlier in the day, Burris said there was “nothing” that Guss did to justify the type of force used on him, adding that “Cowboy Kwesi was lawfully exercising his rights to film the police and to respond to a police officer acting unlawfully and abusively verbally.”
A police spokesperson did not immediately return a message from this news organization seeking comment on the legal claim.
The encounter happened around 10:10 p.m. on May 5 outside a convenience store at Macdonald Avenue and 1st Street, shortly after Guss pulled out his phone and began recording officers who were arresting someone accused of leading them on a high-speed chase.
A video released by Guss’ attorneys showed Sgt. Alexander Caine yelling at Guss to “get out of the f—ing way,” before pushing him. When Guss replied “Shut yo’ b— ass up,” Caine could be seen doing an about-face and immediately running back to Guss, asking “What was that?” before pushing him at least three times and yelling “get out the way” and “back the f— up.”
“His pride was shook, I guess, and he just came back like a madman,” Guss said. “His eyes were bloodshot red.”
Guss repeatedly told Caine to stop touching him and at one point pushed back, according to the legal claim and a news release issued Wednesday by Guss’ attorneys.
The shoving appeared to briefly stop when a woman got between the two men. Yet moments later, a second officer approached and together, Caine and Officer Nicholas Remick handcuffed Guss, kicked one of his ankles and forced him to the ground, the legal claim alleged. The officers then placed their knees on his back and ribs and pushed his face into the ground, the claim said.
Guss was held by police on suspicion of obstruction of justice and resisting arrest, but he was released an hour later, according to the claim. Contra Costa County court records do not show any active criminal case against Guss stemming from the incident, suggesting charges have not been filed.
Later that night at an emergency room, doctors diagnosed Guss with a head injury, lower back pain, wrist pain, rib bruising and acute stress disorder, according to the claim.
Caine is a 15-year veteran of the Richmond Police Department, having arrived at the agency in 2009 after a four-year stint at the San Pablo Police Department, according to state employment records. Remick joined RPD in January 2023, his first law enforcement job in the state, records show.
Guss’ claim suggested Caine “felt the impunity to commit more uses of force” after the Richmond Police Department “failed” to properly take action against him after he was the subject of multiple use-of-force investigations during his time as a K9 handler. A 2021 Bay Area News Group investigation found that Caine deployed his canine, Ranger, to bite three people during a roughly three-week period.
More recently, he was one of two officers who opened fire on June 28, 2023, killing Kevin McDonald while serving a search warrant at a home McDonald shared with his mother and another person. The Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office declined to file charges against the officers, saying that they acted in self-defense after McDonald appeared to point an AR-15 style rifle in their direction.