Body camera footage
from the police department in Omaha, Nebraska, captures the arrest of Micah
Taylor, a 21-year-old Santee Sioux man, on March 7, 2018.
A 22-year-old Santee Sioux man has pleaded guilty to assaulting an officer and fleeing arrest following an encounter last year with Omaha police that ended with him getting shot in the neck.
Micah Taylor pleaded April 9 in Douglas County District Court and now faces up to 50 years for assaulting an officer and up to 2 years for fleeing arrest.
His mother, DeAnna Taylor, said her son was forced to take a plea deal that involved her son dropping a federal civil rights suit against the city of Omaha in exchange for prosecutors dropping drug charges against her son. The plea deal also required Micah Taylor to admit to having sold a half-pound of marijuana to another man prior to his arrest by an Omaha police officer on March 8, 2018, something he initially denied having done.
The incident that led to Taylor’s arrest began when an officer stopped Taylor as he drove his Toyota Camry in north Omaha following the marijuana sale. Taylor has said he was driving to pick up his spiritual adviser to go to a sweat lodge.
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According to Omaha police, the city’s gang unit had conducted surveillance on Taylor, whom they suspected of dealing marijuana and possessing firearms. Around 2:15 p.m. that day, they saw Taylor sell marijuana and a helicopter unit and an officer in a marked cruiser followed him. Around 2:30 p.m., the officer pulled him over on an interstate in north Omaha.
The arresting officer asked Taylor for his license, registration and insurance, but Taylor initially refused. He eventually handed over the items, and the officer then asked him to step out of his car. Again, police say, Taylor refused.
“I am not asking you, I am telling you, step out of the car!” the officer yelled.
The officer then opened Taylor’s car door and tried to pull him out, but Taylor struggled to pull away from him, according to police. While holding Taylor’s arm, the officer stepped back and drew his gun. Taylor then began driving away, which led to the officer being pulled alongside his vehicle, according to police.
The officer then fired three rounds as he was being dragged and fell to the ground.
Micah Taylor is seen
here with two of his spiritual mentors, John Pappan, left and Dr. Rudi Mitchell,
right. Courtesy photo
Taylor, injured, drove south on the interstate with gang unit officers in pursuit until he struck stop sticks laid out by another Omaha officer. The sticks caused him to lose control of his car, and it struck a concrete median and came to rest in a shoulder area.
Police then took him into custody, initially taking him to an Omaha hospital for treatment.
The entire traffic stop, from the time the officer pulled Taylor over to when Taylor drove away, lasted less than two minutes.
But Taylor has contradicted the police department’s description of the traffic stop that led to him being shot.
He told Indianz.Com last year that the officer never told him why he pulled him over, and Taylor immediately became concerned that he was being racially profiled. When the officer told him to get out, Taylor said he refused and asked to speak to his attorney instead.
He said he reached for his phone to call his lawyer, but then the officer fired a shot from his handgun, striking him in the neck.
He said he doesn’t know why the officer began shooting at him, but he wonders whether the officer thought his phone was a gun.
He said the bullet that the officer fired that struck his neck is still there, lodged dangerously close to his spine. So close that an emergency room doctor told him he wouldn’t remove the bullet because doing so might lead to Taylor becoming permanently paralyzed.
Taylor is scheduled to be sentenced June 10.
