by
Tony Ray Cox
Video released by the Oakland County Sheriff's Office shows deputies shooting an unarmed 33-year-old man multiple times in the back in Pontiac as he fled on foot, following a traffic stop and a brief car chase. An autopsy report says that Tony Ray Cox was shot nine times in the back on Dec. 13, 2023. He died.
Cox's mother, Tammy Cox last month filed a wrongful death lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Detroit against the sheriff's office and five deputies, alleging excessive force. Cox, who was 6-foot tall and nearly 400 pounds, is Black and was a robotic engineer who owned a trucking company.
The suit alleges that the department was inclined and predisposed to treat Cox different than a White person because he's Black.
The Oakland County Sheriff's Office says the shooting was justified and deputies had reason to believe Cox was armed.
According to the video, the stop begins with one deputy asking for his license and registration. More deputies appear. One deputy tells Cox that he didn't stop for a stop sign, plus, there was a report of gun shots fired the previous week at the Carriage Circle Apartments on North Arbor Street in Pontiac, and that "someone saw your car leaving there." (See details of the stop in the second video in the first minutes)
Cox tells them that the car belongs to a friend.
One deputy asks him to turn off the car engine.
"I'm scared," Cox says, and later repeats, "I'm scared."
The deputy tells him to just follow instructions.
The deputy tells Cox to turn off his car. Cox says his attorney says he doesn't have to comply with such an order. The deputy sounds skeptical, and tells him "I can ask anyone to do that, OK."
Cox suddenly rolls up the window.
One deputy threatens to blow out his window.
"Are you going to kill me?," Cox asks.
Suddenly, Cox appears as if he's ready to drive off.
"Put your fucking hand up right now," one deputy yells.
Cox puts the car in gear and drives over a lawn and takes off. A chase ensues. One deputy calls the chase in on the police radio, saying the suspect might have a gun.
The deputies pull a police maneuver to stop his car. They point guns at the car. One deputy yells, "put your fucking hands up right now!"
Cox gets out of the car and takes a stance as if he might have a gun, with both hands joined together, pointing toward the deputies. He has no gun. (Around the 3:30 mark in the first video below)
The deputies open fire, hitting him in the front, multiple times, according to the autopsy report.
Cox then tries to run off, but deputies shoot him in the back nine times.
Deputies then call out "shots fired."
Cox is seen lying on the sidewalk, face down, his pants lowered, exposing his buttocks.
One deputy can be heard screaming at him: "Put your hands up."
One deputy says to another that he "fucking pointed," and that he didn't know if it was a firearm. A deputy yells out, "anybody see a gun?"
Joel Sklar, an attorney for the Cox estate, said Cox should never have been pulled over. He said the "shots fired" related to an anonymous call from the apartment building. He said it wasn't clear if the noise was from gunshots or firecrackers, and the car Cox was driving happened to show up on a security camera leaving the complex around the time of the noise.
He said no witness linked the car to any gun shots fired.
"He was terrified," Sklar says of Cox during the stop. "He thought he was going to get killed."
The Oakland County Sheriff's Office insists the shooting was justified, and provided to Deadline Detroit a report of an investigation into the shooting by Lt. Chauncey Shattuck of Ingham County Sheriff's Office. That investigation was requested by the Michigan Sheriff's Association.
The report said:
The vehicle initially came to a stop and Deputies began conducting their investigation. The vehicle was occupied by one person later identified as the suspect Tony Cox. After several minutes the vehicle fled the traffic stop and a pursuit ensued. One of the pursuing Deputies performed a Precision Immobilization Technique, hereafter PIT. The suspect vehicle spun and came to a stop. The suspect quickly exited the vehicle and thrusted his hands towards Deputy Webber in a shooting stance. Deputies on scene fired their pistols at the suspect who fell to the ground. Deputies made the scene safe and performed life saving measures until EMS took over.
In light of the aforementioned, it is my opinion that any reasonable police personnel, presented with these case facts, would have believed the suspect, Tony Cox, posed a threat of serious bodily injury and or death to Deputies: Tomaszewski, C. Johnson, McCarty, Lennard, and Webber, particularly Deputy Webber. It is also my opinion that after the suspect assumed a shooting stance and began to run from the scene of the crash, any reasonable police personnel would believe the suspect was armed, had just committed violent felonies, and that he posed a present danger to the police officers on the scene as well as to the public at large.
The Ingham County Sheriff's report also stated that thirty-seven 9 mm shell casings were recovered from the scene, all of which were collectively fired by the five deputies.
An autopsy report of Cox said "there are nine gunshot wounds on the back ranging in size from 1/4 inch to 1 inch in diameter," and "the trajectory of the bullets is from back to front."
The report also stated there were gunshot wounds to both arms, which Sklar suggests were defensive wounds that Cox suffered when he first got out of the car, and before he tried running away. He was also shot in the thigh and hip, the autopsy report said.
(For full disclosure, Joel Sklar is an attorney for the author of this story).
