A man who claimed Phoenix police held his bare torso to the hot ground for several minutes while detaining him last summer ― to the point where parts of his skin sloughed off his body ― filed a federal lawsuit against the city and the officers who detained him.

Four Phoenix officers questioned and detained then-30-year-old Michael Kenyon on July 6, 2024 — which reached a recorded high temperature of 114 degrees — before they held him face down against black asphalt for roughly four minutes, leaving him with serious burns across his body, according to a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court of Arizona on July 3, nearly one year later.

Kenyon spent over 30 days in the Maricopa County Burn Center, where he underwent a series of painful procedures that included skin grafts to treat the third-degree burns to his body, the lawsuit said. He also had to participate in physical therapy to regain mobility in his arms.

The lawsuit included pictures of Kenyon with severe burn scars across his arms, legs and chest.

Lawsuit says Kenyon didn’t fit suspect description

Kenyon’s roommate called Phoenix police shortly before 2 p.m. that day to report that his laptop had been stolen and believed the suspect to be 5 feet, 5 inches tall with tattoos on his back and possibly armed with pepper spray, according to the lawsuit.

Kenyon was at home when his roommate reported the non-violent theft and decided to walk to a nearby Circle K store to buy a drink, as he didn’t expect police to quickly respond to reports of nonviolent property theft, the lawsuit claimed.

Kenyon was walking across the parking lot toward the store when Phoenix Officers Adelbert Caraig and Eric Jusseume pulled up behind him in a police vehicle and told him to come back, documents said.

Kenyon complied and answered the officers’ questions before the officers grabbed both of his arms within five seconds of their initial contact, the lawsuit said. The suit noted that Kenyon is 5 feet, 10 inches tall, clearly lacked tattoos as he wore a tank top, and overall didn’t match the suspect description his roommate gave to police.

Officers Rowan Clarke and Ira Salinas-Jerry also pressed Kenyon into the pavement, the lawsuit stated.

Skin ‘melted’ from Kenyon’s body

Kenyon sat on the bumper of a nearby truck to demonstrate he had no intention to flee and that physical force was unnecessary, according to the lawsuit. He sat on the bumper for less than 45 seconds before officers told him he was being detained and forced him to the ground, the lawsuit stated.

“As Michael screamed out for help, the officers pressed hard — one officer at one point kneeling on his head, and pressing the side of his face into the asphalt as other officers put their weight on his torso,” the lawsuit claimed.

After four minutes had passed, Kenyon had suffered “third-degree, full thickness burns” on his arms, legs, chest and face and needed help being placed in a police car due to the pain before Phoenix firefighters took him to the Maricopa County Burn Center for treatment, according to the suit.

“The above-described actions of Defendants Clarke, Salinas-Jerry, Caraig, and Jusseume – pressing Michael against hot concrete until the skin melted from his body and he believed he was going to die – were extreme and outrageous,” the lawsuit stated.

The lawsuit said most community members would consider the officers’ actions “atrocious, intolerable in a civilized community, and beyond all possible bounds of human decency.”

While he was being taken to the burn center, firefighters administered 200 mg of Ketamine, causing Kenyon to be “altered on arrival and unable to provide further history” by the time he reached the emergency room, the lawsuit said.

It added that police confiscated Kenyon’s phone, preventing him from calling friends or family to tell them about what had happened to him or where he was and noted officers handcuffed him to the hospital bed despite him not being the suspect they were looking for.

Lawsuit cites previous cases of Phoenix police holding people against hot pavement

It’s not the first time Phoenix police held people against hot pavement as they were detaining them, according to the lawsuit.

The suit cited an incident on Aug. 20, 2019, in which officers handcuffed 17-year-old Roniah Trotter long after she had gotten into a fight with another girl that didn’t result in any serious injuries and held her against the pavement on a day the midday temperature reached 113 degrees.

Trotter suffered second-degree burns in the process, the lawsuit said.

Documents also cited an instance on Aug. 4, 2020, in which officers tackled Ramon Lopez, 28, after he reportedly stole a drink from a convenience store and pressed him against the concrete ground for nearly six minutes before carrying his motionless body to a police car. Lopez would later die in custody, the lawsuit said.

Lopez’s mother, Laura Gonzalez, sued Phoenix as well after his death. That lawsuit remains pending.

Kenyon’s lawsuit also added that the department’s policy doesn’t appear to go over the health risks of holding someone against extremely hot pavement, despite Phoenix making it a Class 1 misdemeanor to walk a dog on public hiking trails when temperatures are over 100 degrees in June 2016.

By pressing Kenyon into the hot pavement, officers violated his civil rights by utilizing excessive force and intentionally inflicting emotional distress, the lawsuit stated.

Dan Wilson, a city spokesperson, declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing pending litigation.

The next scheduled hearing in the case is set for Oct. 1.

Reach the reporter Perry Vandell at perry.vandell@gannett.com or 602-444-2474. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @PerryVandell.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix man sues after skin ‘melted’ during police encounter