It was 28 degrees and after midnight when South Carolina cops abandoned an intoxicated Black woman who was dependent on a walker at a dark, unattended gas station despite her objections.
A drunk driver struck and killed Tracy Denise Brooks, 56, as she walked on a dark rural road.
Last week, Brooks’ son, Bracy Brooks, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the two Greenwood police officers who left his mother abandoned, along with the city of Greenwood.
“Don’t put me out here. I don’t want to get out here,” Brooks pleaded, the claim states. “Take me to jail. It’s cold.”
At first, Greenwood police officers Anna Ballenger and Austin Teasley tried to coax her out of the vehicle, but when she refused, they turned off their body cameras.
Once they had turned the cameras back on, Brooks was no longer in the vehicle, states the claim filed on Oct. 22.
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“When the body cameras were activated to allow the recording of events to resume, Tracy was no longer in the patrol vehicle,” the claim states. “Upon information and belief, they removed her by physical force, coercion, or both, over her express objection.”
“The Officer Defendants then drove away. They left Tracy alone at night, in freezing temperatures, at a closed business, impaired, wearing a medical boot, dependent on a walker, with no shelter, no transportation, and no one to help her.”
About 90 minutes later, a drunk driver struck Brooks from behind as she walked alongside a dark, rural road.
“After the Officer Defendants abandoned her, Tracy tried to walk using her walker in the darkness, in extremely adverse weather conditions.
“The impact threw Tracy into the windshield of the vehicle,” the claim states. Authorities found Brooks’ walker in the ditch besides the road.
On Feb. 22, 2025, Greenwood police received a call from T.W. Boons, a restaurant and bar within Greenwood city limits.
Restaurant employees told police she had become too drunk and no longer wanted her inside the restaurant. The claim states that Greenwood police were familiar with Brooks because she had “struggled with alcohol.”
When police arrived, they said Brooks appeared impaired, struggled to walk and had no transportation. However, the lawsuit states that the bar sat “a short distance from her own residence.” It’s unclear how Brooks got to the restaurant.
“The Officer Defendants had several safe and lawful options,” states the claim, including driving her home, driving her to a family member’s home, driving her to a hospital for evaluation, or simply taking her to jail.
But the cops did not want to spend time with her at the hospital, which is why they chose to abandon her, the claim states.
They drove her to the Five Points area outside the city limits where she said her brother lived, but once there, they did not attempt to find her brother, leaving her abandoned at the unattended gas station.
“The Officer Defendants knew that Tracy’s only way to leave the closed gas station was to walk, at night, with a walker, along roads used by motor vehicles,” the claim states.
“They knew that an impaired, mobility-limited pedestrian walking unlit roads in the dark faced a substantial risk of serious injury or death from traffic, falls, or exposure to the cold.”
The cops also violated departmental policy by turning off their body cameras, “which requires officers to record throughout an enforcement contact, a custody, and a transport,” the claim states.
Ninety minutes later, Bobby Alfred Lyles, who registered a .11 blood alcohol concentration, which is above the legal limit of .08, struck her.
Police charged Lyles with DUI and driving under a suspended license — and not with Brooks’ death, according to court records and the lawsuit.
But the police could have easily prevented her death by taking the proper steps to keep her safe.
“Between the time the Officer Defendants abandoned her and the time of her death, Tracy consciously experienced cold, exhaustion, pain, fear, and distress,” the claim states.
“Upon information and belief, she consciously suffered from the impact and her injuries before she died.”
“Tracy’s death was the direct, foreseeable, and proximate result of the conduct of the Officer Defendants. Had they taken her home, to a hospital, to a responsible adult, or to the detention center, she would not have been walking on Siloam Church Road at 2:00 a.m.,” the claim continues.
“Her suffering and violent death were directly caused by the deliberate actions and inactions of the Officer Defendants.”
Two days after her death, a Greenwood police major reviewed body camera footage, determined the two officers violated department policy and recommended that the chief fire them.
However, Greenwood Police Chief T.J. Chaudoin rejected the recommendation, telling the major that the officers dropping Brooks off at the gas station and her death 90 minutes later were “two separate incidents.”
Officer Teasley remained employed with the Greenwood Police Department. Ballenger resigned for unrelated reasons, the claim states.
“The Officer Defendants left Tracy in a materially worse and more dangerous position than the one in which they found her at T.W. Boons,” the claim states.
“Being struck by a vehicle while walking along public roadways late at night was the precise, foreseeable consequence of abandoning her.”