LAKE CHARLES - DeQuincy police and their chief are being sued by a family that says their child was slammed to a concrete floor.
Bradley Hext and Shalace Hext, both personally and on behalf of their minor child, Hayz Hext, filed a federal complaint on August 27 in the Western District of Louisiana against the City of Dequincy, Chief Casey Whitehead, Sam Kayal, Loy Bader and Jeremy Brady for inadequate training, supervision, and oversight of its police officers, among many other claims.
According to the complaint, on August 31, 2020, the Hext family returned to their home in DeQuincy after assisting Shalace Hext’s father and neighbors with clean-up efforts as a result of the damage inflicted upon residents by Hurricane Laura three days earlier.
Upon return to their home, Bradley and Shalace Hext began gathering and burning leaves within their fenced-in backyard. Two uniformed police officers, Kayal and Bader, arrived at the Hext residence and immediately began a verbal tirade upon Bradley Hext regarding the fire in the Hext’s backyard, and after some discussion, Mrs. Hext extinguished the fire, the suit claims.
Officers then had two fire trucks arrive to the residence for the leaf-burning fire. After more heated discussion, Hayz Hext came out to see what was causing all the commotion and Officer Bader allegedly slammed the minor child onto the concrete floor, causing physical injury to the child’s body, including but not limited to his right knee, the suit says.
Mr. Hext raised his hands into the air and verbally submitted himself to the officers in an effort to deescalate the highly intense situation, but Officer Kayal allegedly fired his uniform patrol-distributed taser device, which made contact with and penetrated the skin of Mr. Hext.
Mr. Hext was placed under arrested, bonded out and had to take his minor child to the emergency room for the injuries. A few months later, all charges against Mr. Hext were dropped, the suit says.
The Hext family seeks compensatory and punitive damages, attorney's fees and cost of suit. The Hext family is represented by Gregory Rome.
U.S. District Court Western District of Louisiana Lake Charles Division case number 2:21-cv-03093