Inset: Asson Hacker (Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office). Background: Evansville Police Department (WEVV/YouTube).
An Indiana deputy died after being choked, hit and body-slammed by a training officer in an Ultimate Fighting Championship-style “state-sponsored hazing event,” the deputy’s widow alleges in a new lawsuit.
Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Asson Hacker died in 2023 during Southwest Indiana Law Enforcement Academy (SWILEA) cadet training, which is referred to as “The Big Fight,” according to the lawsuit filed by Hacker’s widow, Kourtney Hacker. The lawsuit, which names The Evansville Police Department, the city, SWILEA and two training instructors, seeks an amount to be determined at trial.
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Representatives from the Evansville Police Department declined to comment, citing department policy surrounding pending litigation, The Evansville Courier & Press reported. A representative from SWILEA also declined to comment when reached by Law&Crime.
The Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that the office “continues to mourn the tragic and untimely passing of Deputy Asson Hacker,” the newspaper reported.
“While the sheriff’s office is not a named party in the lawsuit filed by Deputy Hacker’s estate, we are closely monitoring the developments in this case,” the statement said. “We believe many of the allegations contained within the complaint are either inaccurate or misleading.”
Hacker, who worked as a coal miner before joining the sheriff’s office in December 2022, was required to undergo the training like all other cadets, according to the complaint that outlines the allegations leading to his death.
On March 2, 2023, Hacker was among other cadets participating in the department’s mandatory training program for male recruits called the “Big Fight,” set up in a fighting circle similar to that of mixed martial arts or UFC-style fight at Club Bushido, a martial arts training center in Evansville, Indiana.
Each cadet was paired with a veteran police officer for their fight.
Hacker was paired in his “Big Fight” with a “substantially larger” instructor, the lawsuit said.
The fight was filmed, and spectators looked on as the instructor proceeded to “choke, strangle, hit, punch, kick, and body slam Hacker,” the lawsuit alleges.
The trainer “impeded Hacker’s ability to breathe” multiple times, using physical tactics that would be deemed an excessive use of force by department standards, court documents said.
A second instructor, acting as a “coach,” was supposed to stop the fight after 5 minutes but didn’t stop the fight and instead encouraged the fight to continue, the lawsuit alleges, adding that the fight lasted more than seven minutes.
When it was over, Hacker lay motionless on the floor.
“Despite obvious signs that Hacker needed immediate medical assistance, no meaningful assistance was provided to Hacker for a significant period of time,” court documents said.
Hacker struggled to breathe, and his medical condition worsened, the lawsuit said. Hacker was finally taken to the hospital after several more fights between cadets and instructors took place. He was declared dead at 4:03 p.m. The coroner listed Hacker’s cause of death as “exertional sickling” due to sickle cell trait, the Courier & Press reported.
The lawsuit called the instructors’ conduct “willful and wanton and/or criminally reckless.”
“The ‘Big Fight’ was not a legitimate training exercise but rather a state sponsored hazing event that created an obviously dangerous situation,” the lawsuit said.
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