It’s been about a week since Connie Elison’s 54-year-old son was shot and killed by a security guard in Salt Lake City — and the mother says she’s still in shock.
She can’t believe that someone would fire a gun toward her son Thomas Stanfield after an early-morning confrontation last Wednesday.
“Unless you’re a mother, you don’t know how much your children mean to you, even as old as he was,” Elison said. “I think it was totally wrong.”
On Tuesday, the mother filed a lawsuit against security company Citadel Security USA, alleging the company did not properly train its employee Timothy Lutes on when to use lethal force.
Salt Lake City police say Lutes fatally shot Stanfield last Wednesday. The 26-year-old security guard initially claimed he fired his weapon in self-defense after the two men scuffled, but police say Lutes shot Stanfield twice in the back as he was walking away.
Lutes was charged Tuesday with first-degree felony murder. He is currently being held at the Salt Lake County jail.
(Photo Courtesy of Salt Lake County jail) Timothy R. Lutes
Elison’s lawsuit, filed Tuesday in 3rd District Court, alleges Lutes used “unreasonable, unnecessary and excessive deadly force” against her son. Her attorney, Robert Sykes, also alleges in the lawsuit that Citadel did not properly train or supervise Lutes, including teaching him the rules for when to use deadly force.
“I just want justice,” the mother said. “That’s what I want.”
The shooting happened at a plaza near 140 E. 300 South between the Utah Department of Workforce Services and the Utah Department of Commerce and Labor Commission offices.
Stanfield had been living at the Road Home in recent months, according to Sykes, and was likely in the area trying to get a job or housing. (A spokesman for the Utah Department of Workforce Services has said that job services are not offered at this building.)
Though the offices didn’t open until 8 a.m., Stanfield had been in the plaza since about 5 a.m.
“We believe he was waiting to be first in line to ask for tips to become employed,” Sykes said during a Tuesday news conference. “He had been talking about it for some time, and that’s why he was down there.”
Stanfield’s brother, Grant Stanfield, said Tuesday that his brother had talked about turning his life around before, but his family was still encouraged by his latest efforts.
“I know he was energized,” the brother said. “It doesn’t surprise me that he was down there to be first in line.”
Charging records say Thomas Stanfield was lying on the ground by a pillar when Lutes approached him and shined a light in his eyes. As Stanfield began standing up and gathering his property, the security guard continued to point a flashlight in strobe mode at his face.
This sparked a fistfight, according to Elison’s lawsuit.
“Lutes claimed that as he and Thomas scuffled on the ground, that Thomas had removed Lutes’ holster containing his firearm and his belt and pointed his own gun at him,” the lawsuit reads. “However, video cameras, which captured this event, prove that claim by Lutes to be false. Thomas never had the firearm that [belonged] to Lutes, and never pointed it at him.”
Police say Thomas Stanfield had tried to leave the area several times, but Lutes reinitiated contact each time.
“At one point, Lutes knocks Mr. Stanfield to the ground and punches him several times while he is on the ground,” charges state.
When Stanfield turned his back to leave the last time, taking several steps away, Lutes shot and killed him, Salt Lake City police said last week. Stanfield died at the plaza.
“Thomas’ family has reported that Thomas was undoubtedly afraid that Lutes was going to hurt him,” the lawsuit reads, “which caused him to experience fear and terror in the last, final moments of his life.”
(photo courtesy Robert Sykes) Connie Elison is seen with her sons Tom Stanfield, Grant Stanfield and Kevin Stanfield in this 2004 family photo.
Citadel Security officials did not respond to a request for comment regarding the lawsuit.
Sykes said lawsuits like Elison’s usually can only be brought against state entities. They have filed suit against the private company, however, by alleging the security company was state-contracted and performing police functions.
The attorney said much of the claims in the lawsuit are based on statements made to the media by Salt Lake City police officials, adding they have not yet seen the security video. They pushed to file the lawsuit quickly, Sykes said, after Thomas Stanfield’s biological daughter had filed a petition in court to be her father’s personal representative. But Sykes said the daughter was adopted by another family member and is not a legal heir — but Thomas Stanfield’s mother is.
Elison seeks an unspecified amount in monetary damages, along with punitive measures requiring Citadel to provide training to its employees regarding the use of lethal force.
“We don’t want to see this happen to anyone else,” Grant Stanfield said. “No one, regardless of their background, no one deserves that.”
