DENVER — A Pueblo County sheriff’s deputy shot and killed an unarmed man outside of a middle school last year after contacting the man because he accidentally got into the wrong car in the school’s pick-up line, a federal civil rights lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges.
The deputy, Charles McWhorter, yanked 32-year-old Richard Ward from his mother’s car outside Liberty Point International Middle School in Pueblo West on Feb. 22, 2022, after Ward put something in his mouth while McWhorter spoke to him, according to body camera footage released by attorneys representing Ward’s family.
Ward and McWhorter briefly struggled on the ground before McWhorter shot Ward three times in the chest at point-blank range, the video shows.
