Brandon Ruff, a police officer in Philadelphia, has filed a lawsuit against his own department for assault.
According to Philly.com, Ruff says that he was assaulted by seven police officers after he attempted to anonymously turn in three weapons. An eight-year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department, Ruff is assigned to the 16th Precinct. The alleged assault happened at the 35th Precinct.
In his civil suit, which Philly.com has seen, Ruff says that he was turning in the guns for a friend who had bought them from a neighbor in order to fight against violence in that neighborhood. While off-duty, Ruff took the unloaded guns to the 35th Precinct and told an officer there that he wanted to turn in the guns. When asked for the identity of the owner, Ruff stated that he was turning them in under a “no questions asked” policy and asked for a supervisor. That’s when his interaction with the officers at the 35th Precinct went awry, the suit alleges.
The supervisor Ruff requested did not appear. When asked for his identification, Ruff told an officer that he had his work ID but no government ID. He asked to step outside to make a phone call, according to Philly.com, and as he was walking away someone shouted, “There he is,” and an officer twisted his arm.
Ruff says that he then used a code number to identify himself as an officer. Another officer asked him, “Why the hell would you come into a police station with a gun on your hip? Where is your permit to carry?” Ruff answered that his police identification served as his license to carry, but to no avail.
Ruff, who was held for six hours, is currently being investigated by Internal Affairs because of this incident.
He believes that the actions of those officers “were committed willfully, wantonly, maliciously, intentionally, outrageously, deliberately and/or by conduct so egregious as to shock the conscience,” according to Philly.com.
Philly.com says Ruff is claiming that the city itself is at fault and is ignoring officers’ abuse of their powers. The website also says Ruff is alleging that the city is complicit in the misrepresentation of facts that permits officers to have people “falsely arrested or maliciously prosecuted.”
Read more at Philly.com.
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