A Black man says he was attacked by police officers for sitting in his car while waiting to drive a client home.
Wesley Eggleston II sued the Pennsylvania State Police and the Borough of Parkesburg last week in federal court, alleging officers tasered and beat him in January 2024 for simply parking on First Avenue.
He had routinely done so at the same address to drive a home health-care worker home from her appointment. But this day, he noticed four white cops moving toward him, one of whom told him to get out of the car.
“Eggleston, who committed no wrong at all and committed no traffic violations, did not understand why he would have to exit his vehicle and feared for his safety,” the suit says.
It adds the officers never conferred with the client and instead chose to drag him out of the car. He says at one point there was a gun pointed at his chest.
“Pulled out of his vehicle, the officers tried to force him to the concrete and shot him in his lower back with a taser, sending painful electrical current through his body,” the suit says.
“Reacting to the extreme pain, Eggleston reached behind him attempting to pull the taser wire from his body. When he grabbed the wire, his hand immediately clamped shut due to the electrical current, and he was unable to release it. This caused additional and extreme pain throughout his body.”
He was punched in the mouth while questioning the attack, Eggleston aims, and officers finally realized he had done nothing wrong. They stopped and asked for his driver’s license, and a supervisor later tried to coerce Eggleston into claiming he had tried to flee, the suit says.
He says the PSP and Parkesburg Police Department have failed to give him the names of the officers. They also did not take disciplinary action against the officers even though a camera at a neighbor’s house captured the assault, Eggleston claims.
He is represented by Robert Goldman and Gerard Egan.
