CHEYENNE — The mother of a 22-year-old man who shot and killed himself while handcuffed and in custody in a police cruiser in January has filed a wrongful death petition that could be the precursor to suing the Cheyenne Police Department.
In a May 27 petition to be appointed the wrongful death representative for her son Aiden Hall, attorneys for Dani Hall are seeking legal authority to “investigate and prosecute a wrongful death claim.”
While he couldn’t speak to Aiden Hall’s case specifically, Gillette attorney Tom Lubnau said that this type of petition is typically the first step in suing over a wrongful death claim.
“You have to do that first,” he said, adding that it also is needed to negotiate settlements over those types of claims.
After Dani Hall is legally recognized to represent her son’s interests, a two-year statute of limitations begins on filing a wrongful death claim, if she chooses, Lubnau said.
The allegation of wrongful death stems from the Jan. 18 death of Aiden Hall, who was detained by Cheyenne Police Department (CPD) officers while they were investigating a single-vehicle crash, according to CPD reports.
Officers removed a pocketknife from Aiden Hall's front pocket after detaining him and prior to handcuffing him, but missed a handgun he was carrying.
While secured in the back of the police vehicle, Aiden Hall was able to move his handcuffs from behind his back to the front of his body, then retrieved a concealed firearm from inside his pants, the CPD reported shortly after the incident.
When the officers returned to the car, they discovered Hall had shot himself.
In follow-up internal investigations into the suicide, Cheyenne police reported that standard policies had not been followed and that the agency identified “opportunities to enhance and clarify” the agency’s procedures.
More specifically, the CPD’s investigation also found that the officers involved never searched Aiden Hall before putting him into the car, as reported by the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.
Multiple messages left for Dani Hall’s attorneys with the Jackson-based Spence Law Firm to clarify if the intent is to bring a wrongful death lawsuit weren’t returned by the time this story was published.
Messages left for the Cheyenne City Attorney’s Office and Dani Hall also weren’t returned.
How Was A Gun Missed?
Dani Hall learned soon after the shooting that her firstborn son had shot himself while handcuffed and sitting alone in the back of a police car, she told Cowboy State Daily five days later.
She said she couldn’t grasp how police could find a pocketknife in his pocket, but miss a gun.
“How did they find a pocketknife and not a full-sized pistol?” she asked. “I don’t want this to happen to anybody else’s family. So avoidable.”
Dani Hall told Cowboy State Daily at the time that she didn’t want to see the in-car video.
She said she would speak with an attorney about possible litigation, and that her attorney would review the video for her at some point.
Still, she said she questioned the deputy coroner about it.
“Did he say anything before he did it?” Dani asked the deputy, according to her recollection.
She said the deputy coroner’s answer was, “No, he was just crying.”
Dani said she learned that the gun was a 9 mm pistol, and she couldn’t understand how officers could have missed that when they detained him.
The Cheyenne Police Department investigation report reveals the answer to that: he wasn’t searched.
The Arrest
The night of Jan. 17-18, Aiden Hall was about 8 miles from home after spending the night out.
He was in his third year of training to become an electrician, and was based in Cheyenne for a Colorado electrical company, Dani Hall told Cowboy State Daily in January, adding that he was working to buy his home.
Aiden Hall was facing the potential end of a long-term relationship, and “he was sad about the uncertainty,” his mother said.
Near the intersection of West 9th Street and Deming Drive in south Cheyenne, Aiden Hall missed a turn and hit a guardrail.
He got out of his truck and rushed away on foot, while a nearby homeowner called police, according to his mother’s account.
A statement about the incident that the Cheyenne Police Department released five days later reported that officers were called to the scene at 1:17 a.m.
Officers arrived to find a maroon pickup parked on the sidewalk looking like it had struck a guardrail then come to rest on the roadside grass, the statement says.
They found a man running along Deming Drive and spoke to him long enough to determine he was the owner of the truck.
He “showed signs of intoxication and admitted to consuming alcohol,” the statement says.
Officers removed a pocketknife from the man's front pocket, handcuffed him, then put him in a police car and took him back to the crash scene, the statement says.
“Officers briefly stepped away to assess the crash scene and prepared to begin a Driving Under the Influence (DUI) investigation,” the agency added.
Aiden Hall was pronounced dead at the scene.
‘I Want Them To Remember …’
The Cheyenne Police Department conducted an internal investigation into the incident and released a report highlighting the results in early February.
“The administrative review was a comprehensive and thorough process, involving a detailed examination of all available information, including body-worn and in-car camera footage from the incident, as well as a critical assessment of existing departmental policies, training, and procedures,” the report says.
While it doesn’t go into specifics about the investigation’s findings, it did identify “opportunities to enhance and clarify departmental procedures related to the search and transportation of individuals in custody.”
The department said that “a policy violation was also identified,” but the report doesn’t elaborate on which policy or how it was violated.
When contemplating what she’d like the public to remember about Aiden, Dani burst into tears during her January interview with Cowboy State Daily.
“I want them to remember that he was a kind, kind kid who would lend a hand to anybody even if they have differing opinions,” she said. “He would be the first kid to jump in and help when needed.”
He was resourceful from a young age, she said. He turned the family barbecue grill into a metal forge so he could craft knives at age 13.
Dani said her son loved to learn new skills.
“He’d just set his mind to it and he did it,” she said. “He was a great young man.”
The petition to appoint Dani Hall as her son’s wrongful death representative requires the publication of three public notices, which were published in the June 3, 10 and 17 editions of the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
