A Sheffield man has filed a $50 million lawsuit against a former Sheffield police officer and several Florence police officers, after he was beaten in an incident late last year.

The federal lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court, stems from a Dec. 23, 2022 incident that happened in a Lauderdale County retail package store. Max Ryan Dotson, who was at the time a lieutenant with the Sheffield Police Department, pointed a gun at Demarcus Key, 44, and hit him while off-duty.

The suit also names officers Tyler Barnett, Ryan Wells, Brian Perry, and the cities of Sheffield and Florence, as well as the Good Spirits package store. It seeks damages, claiming unlawful arrest, use of excessive force, violations of civil rights and the Fourth and 14th Amendments, assault and battery, emotional distress and negligence.

In July, Dotson was found guilty of assault, menacing and reckless endangerment in connection with the incident.

In an interview earlier this year, Key said Dotson approached him at the store and “just asked me what I said to his daughter and I kept telling him I didn’t know what he was talking about.”

According to the suit, Dotson hit Demarcus Key in the face when he was in front of the store counter, then pulled a gun on him before leaving the store. The store clerk, the suit contends, told Key to leave, as the police had been called, but Key “did not want to leave out the store due to the fear of getting shot and assaulted,” according to the suit.

Key went outside, where Dotson assaulted him again until Barnett, who had previously worked with Dotson with Florence police, arrived in his patrol car. Dotson says Barnett injured him in the act of putting him in the patrol car.

Key told the officer to review the store’s video camera footage, saying Dotson was the aggressor. Key was later arrested, while Dotson was allowed to go home, the suit contends.

Lawyers for Key say the cities of Sheffield and Florence never disciplined the officers involved in the incident.

Dotson is one of 10 Sheffield officers being sued by Marvin Long, an unarmed Black man who was bitten by police dogs two years ago.