More than a year has passed since the massacre in Isla Vista. The aftermath continues, and one of the victims filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court on June 23.
In the lawsuit, Keith Cheung alleges false imprisonment and that he was denied proper medical care when he was handcuffed by a Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office deputy after getting struck by the speeding BMW driven by Elliot Rodger, who perpetrated the spree. When Cheung was hit, the lawsuit details, he suffered serious injuries after becoming lodged in the windshield and then ejected onto the ground after Rodger crashed his car, the lawsuit states.
On May 23, 2014, former Santa Barbara City College student Rodger stabbed three people to death in his apartment before going on a shooting rampage in the college community near UC Santa Barbara, killing three more people. According to the Sheriff’s Office, Rodger drove his car through the neighborhood, shooting at random people and trying to hit them with his car, injuring an additional 14 victims. After being shot in the hip by a deputy, Rodger committed suicide.
Cheung was only a block away from home that evening, riding his bike after covering a lifeguarding shift for a coworker at UCSB when Rodger hit him.
According to Brian Kabateck, one of Cheung’s attorneys, Cheung was handcuffed for a period of 10 to 15 minutes while suffering from a head injury.
Although the lawsuit states that Cheung was ejected from the car, Kabateck said that an eyewitness”an EMT present at the time”saw a deputy pull Cheung out of the windshield and handcuff him, adding that the deputy may have mistaken Cheung as a suspect in the chaos of the situation.
In the Isla Vista shooting investigative summary released by the Sheriff’s Office in February 2015, Cheung was thought to be a suspect at first because he was lying near the car.
Kabateck told the Sun that his client was left with a “lingering brain injury.”
Kelly Hoover, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Office, told the Sun that she couldn’t comment because they hadn’t yet been formally notified of the lawsuit.
In the suit, Cheung also accuses Rodger’s parents, Li Chin and Peter, of negligence for providing their son with the car”which was registered to them”while knowing that he posed a threat to others.
The lawsuit also lists UCSB and Santa Barbara County’s government as defendants, also accusing them of negligence.
Kabateck didn’t specify the amount of damages Cheung was seeking, but the lawsuit states the amount is at least $25,000.
This article appears in Jul 2-9, 2015.
