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WEST VALLEY CITY — A man who suffered permanent debilitating injuries when he was run over by a car while being arrested by West Valley Police is now suing the officers involved.

Atonio Sivatia, 20, through his mother and attorney Robert Sykes, filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday against West Valley City and four of its police officers.

On Dec. 6, 2020, police were called to an apartment complex near 4000 S. Redwood Road about midnight where Sivatia was yelling and screaming in the parking lot and broke an apartment window. Sykes said Sivatia was having a “nonviolent argument” with his girlfriend.

But a West Valley police officer wrote in a police report that he was dispatched to assist another officer with “a violent mental subject.” Witnesses could hear Sivatia yelling suicidal comments as he punched apartment walls and a window and then went outside and banged on several car windows. One person who was sitting in his car told officers that Sivatia punched his window and demanded that he give him his vehicle, the report states.

When officers arrived and approached Sivatia, he fled and began crossing Redwood Road.

West Valley police officer Ammon Fox deployed his Taser on Sivatia to get him to stop, causing Sivatia to drop to the ground. According to a police report, “Fox advised over the (police) radio that the male was attempting to be hit by vehicles in the road and a Taser was deployed.”

Sivatia was left lying on his back in the inside lane of traffic on Redwood Road, according to the lawsuit.

“Any reasonable officer would have known with certainty that compelling a suspect, like Atonio, to lie on his back in a lane of high speed traffic on Redwood Road at midnight would subject that suspect to a very high risk of catastrophic injury from being struck by a motorist who would not expect to encounter a person lying on the road at that time of night,” the lawsuit states.

It contends that the officer’s actions to that point “were more than just negligent but were reckless, grossly negligent and extremely outrageous under the circumstances.” A Taser should not have been used in that situation, especially on a busy road, Sykes said.

The road was dark at that time and not well lit, and one car barely missed Sivatia when he first dropped to the ground after the Taser was deployed, the lawsuit alleges.

“Fox acted recklessly in several aspects, but he was particularly reckless when he continued to order Atonio to stay on the road and not move even though he could see that traffic was not blocked and was moving toward Atonio,” the lawsuit says.

A second officer arrived on scene but did not block oncoming traffic, the lawsuit states. While the second officer and Fox were standing 12 to 15 feet away from Sivatia discussing their next steps in arresting him, the driver of a car who did not see Sivatia lying in the road ran over him, according to the lawsuit. Sivatia was caught underneath the car and dragged about 15 feet before the car came to a stop on top of him.

Sivatia “suffered extreme life-altering injuries” and has had multiple surgeries over the past year, the lawsuit states. He is no longer able to walk or talk, he suffered a traumatic brain injury and “no longer has the physical or mental ability to care for himself in any capacity. … Atonio has been rendered permanently and totally disabled.”

Sivatia will likely remain in a care facility the rest of his life, his attorney said.

This story will be updated throughout the afternoon following a press conference about the lawsuit.