DAVIS, Calif. — A UC Davis football player who suffered permanent eye damage when campus police shot “pepperballs” filled with powdered pepper spray into a crowd will be allowed to sue to the university, according to a federal appeals court ruling made Wednesday. The decision was critical of the officers’ use of force against “non-threatening individuals.”
Timothy Nelson, then a 20-year-old sophomore, was temporarily blinded when police shot the projectiles into a crowd gathering outside an apartment complex for the university’s annual Picnic Day festivities in April 2004, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Nelson said he was trying to leave the party by was blocked by police, who fired from 15 and 50 yards away.
Due to his injuries, Nelson lost his athletic scholarship and had to drop out of school, although he later returned and graduated.
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