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On December 13, 2022, Christopher Gibson was found wandering the streets lost, confused and coatless on a cold winter night. He was arrested on an outstanding warrant for two counts of identity theft, as well as his general mental state. A general melee ensued and the ACLU has sued the City of Warren's Police Department for their techniques:
https://www.aclumich.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/1_complaint_1.pdf
Warren police sued for alleged excessive force on man in mental health crisis
By Max Reinhart - August 13, 2025
The Detroit NewsFootage released by the ACLU of Michigan shows police struggling to subdue Christopher Gibson.
A Detroit man is suing Warren police, claiming they knew he was having a mental health emergency while they beat, shocked, pepper sprayed and threatened him with a K-9 during a December 2022 incident.Christopher Gibson, 26, was hospitalized for about a week with damage to his heart and kidneys, according to the 31-page complaint, filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. He said the damage was due to officers' excessive force. He is seeking an unspecified total in damages after having allegedly suffered extreme physical pain and injuries, and cites emotional suffering and trauma.
“If officers regarded Mr. Gibson’s behavior as problematic, the antidote was not violence. No one should ever face the abusive treatment Mr. Gibson endured," said Mark P. Fancher, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan, which filed the lawsuit on Gibson's behalf. "He required compassion and treatment while in the throes of a mental health crisis, which would have made pepper spray, handcuffs, a taser, and brutalization unnecessary."
Warren police didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
The ACLU alleges that Gibson was taken into custody during the early morning hours of Dec. 13, 2022, based on an outstanding warrant for two counts of identity theft. He had been found "wandering the streets lost, confused and coatless on a winter night," the organization said in a press release.
According to the complaint, Gibson's mother informed an officer that her son was experiencing a mental health emergency and he should be taken to a psychiatric hospital.
Instead, he allegedly was detained in a Warren Police Department holding cell, where he had several violent and traumatic encounters with officers.
“Even though I remain afraid of what police might do to me for speaking out about what happened and demanding accountability, I am willing to do so in the hope that it will help prevent other people from having to go through the kind of torture I was subjected to. I feel lucky to have survived all they did to me," Gibson said in a statement.
The lawsuit says after Gibson was transported to a hospital, authorities did not inform his mother about his whereabouts for three days.
The ACLU said it is the latest incident that illustrates a pattern of abuse by Warren police in recent years.
In 2022, attorneys for a Black teen filed a lawsuit alleging Warren officers beat and bloodied him in a racially motivated incident during a traffic stop.
In 2018, the department's deputy commissioner was placed on leave amid allegations of excessive force stemming from a report of shoplifting.
Gibson's lawsuit names 12 Warren Police Department personnel, plus five unidentified officers and the city of Warren itself as defendants.
“What happened to Mr. Gibson graphically highlights how ill-equipped police officers can be when interacting with people experiencing mental health issues," ACLU of Michigan staff attorney Syeda Davidson said in a statement. "Mental health experts – not police officers trained to unleash their militaristic mentality – need to be responding to situations like the one Mr. Gibson was facing. Until that happens, tragedies like this, sadly, will continue to occur.”
Local police departments have attempted to improve their responses to mental health crises in recent years.
In late 2022, the Detroit Police Department overhauled it Crisis Intervention Team program, including outfitting officers in "softer" uniforms and equipping them with less-than-lethal weapons like beanbag shotguns and devices that can shoot a cord that coils around a person's arms or legs to restrain them.
Some local law enforcement agencies have hired behavioral health specialists to assist with sensitive situations, including those involving mentally ill subjects.
During a discussion with Mayor Mike Duggan at the 2024 Mackinac Policy Conference, then-Detroit Police Chief James White said DPD responds to double-digit numbers of mental health-related calls each day.
Warren PD issued a substantial "limited response" to the lawsuit filed by the ACLU on behalf of Christopher Gibson:
Warren police respond to excessive force lawsuit filed by mentally ill Detroit man
By Christina Hall - August 14, 2025
Detroit Free PressKey Points
* Christopher Gibson said he was assaulted by Warren police while in a holding cell in December 2022.
* Gibson has schizophrenia and asked for mental health assistance, according to his lawsuit filed by attorneys with the ACLU of Michigan.Warren police dispute the claim in a federal lawsuit filed by a mentally ill Detroit man who accuses them of assaulting him in a police holding cell instead of getting him needed mental health assistance in 2022.
The department issued what it called a "limited response" on Thursday, Aug. 14, as it typically refrains from comment on pending litigation.
In a statement, the department indicated that it believes the complete video record and other evidence will show that Christopher Gibson "engaged in a series of very intentional, violent assaults and other resistive actions against police while in custody. State and federal courts consistently hold that police can and must police in such a situation to protect life and limb, including by use of reasonable force when necessary. On these bases, we are confident the ACLU lawsuit will be quickly dismissed."
Police also "dispute the claim that Mr. Gibson was seriously injured by the Warren Police Department or inside the Warren Police Department jail."
Attorneys with the ACLU of Michigan filed the lawsuit on Gibson's behalf on Aug. 13 in U.S. District Court in Detroit against the city and at least a dozen of its police officers. Gibson, 26, indicated he was "brutally battered, tasered and threatened with a barking K-9" while detained after his arrest Dec. 13, 2022.
The lawsuit indicates that he has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and that before and during his detention, he experienced a mental health emergency that required the intervention of mental health specialists. Instead, he was treated at a local hospital for physical injuries for about a week after his encounters with police, with his heart and kidneys leaking, and his mother indicating he had no preexisting problems with those organs, according to the complaint.The ACLU of Michigan produced an 11-minute video with police body camera footage and comments from Gibson and his mother, who indicated to police that her son was experiencing a mental health emergency and should be taken to a psychiatric hospital instead of the police station, according to the lawsuit.
It indicated that Gibson visited his mother in Detroit on Dec. 12, 2022, after an emotional night with a cousin who was dying of cancer and began to display symptoms of his mental illness, including incoherence and manic behavior.
His mother tried to persuade him to go home, but he suggested that he be taken to a mental health facility. When she texted Detroit police for help in taking him to a hospital, Gibson became agitated and left the house, according to the lawsuit. Gibson's mother and Detroit police searched the neighborhood for him for about 10 minutes unsuccessfully.
Later, gas station personnel saw Gibson and contacted Warren police, explaining they were concerned about him. Warren police apprehended Gibson, explaining they were responding to concerns from the gas station personnel, according to the lawsuit.
In its statement, Warren police said officers encountered Gibson after a 911 call reporting his suspicious behavior. The lawsuit indicates he was arrested on an outstanding warrant for two counts of identity theft. Police, in its statement, indicated he was arrested on four open felony warrants for identity theft, larceny and other financial crimes, and the arrest was without incident, as the video shows.
At the city jail, however, police indicated Gibson's demeanor went from "suspicious to aggressive."
"Gibson went so far as to bite a jail officer who was removing his handcuffs inside a holding cell. This bite drew blood, and the officer needed medical attention," according to the police statement. "After this attack, Gibson refused to comply with even simple commands that were necessary to get him transported to a facility equipped with medical and mental health professionals."
The lawsuit indicated that Gibson reacted, including biting, after officers engaged with him physically after they urged him to cooperate with them to take him to an interview room and that he explained his reluctance because of his mental health emergency. It indicates that an officer pepper-sprayed Gibson.
Warren police, in its statement, indicated it used "multiple less-than-lethal options to ensure safety while successfully getting Gibson handcuffed and transported to a county facility." It disputed that Gibson was seriously hurt by its officers or inside its jail.
"In fact, the lawsuit claims Gibson sustained injury when removed from a transport car in the garage of the county facility. This removal was not by Warren Police, but another Department's designated Cell Extraction Team, who had been informed by us of Gibson's self-reported mental health issues and assaultive behavior," according to the statement, which did not name the other department's Cell Extraction Team.
The lawsuit accused officers of violently pulling Gibson, who was shackled, out of the back of a police vehicle and throwing him to the asphalt.
Warren police indicated in its statement that Gibson was charged and convicted in July of 2025 of felonious assault of police in connection with the video presented by the ACLU of Michigan. It indicated he also pleaded guilty to felony weapons charges in Wayne County in 2024.
"In neither court proceeding did Gibson even assert a mental health defense or incompetency. It is unsettling that none of this is disclosed in the ACLU's presentation, where Gibson is portrayed as someone unable to follow basic police commands," according to the police statement.
"Gibson now seeks monetary damages for an issue that the ACLU readily admits is not unique to the Warren Police Department," it continued. "The lawsuit actually asks the courts to mandate a new national policing standard where social workers or mental health professionals respond, instead of police, to anyone self-reporting a mental health crisis.
"But the reality is that trained police are the only available first responders in these rapidly changing, extremely dangerous situations. It is also the reality that mental health resources are limited in Michigan and nationally, as anyone with a loved one suffering with mental illness knows, which limitations equally apply to police agencies. Still, the Warren Police Department trains extensively on best practices in handling mentally distressed persons and will continue doing so."
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