The family of an unarmed black teenager who was killed by a white police officer filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Ferguson, Missouri, on Thursday, the next step in a case that triggered national outcry over excessive force by police.
The family of an unarmed black teenager who was killed by a white police officer filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Ferguson, Missouri, on Thursday, the next step in a case that triggered national outcry over excessive force by police.
Michael Brown's family is seeking $75,000 in compensation and unspecified punitive damages in the lawsuit that was filed in St. Louis County. It also calls for a court order prohibiting the use of police techniques "that demean, disregard, or underserve its African-American population."
Jeff Small, a spokesman for Ferguson, said officials had not yet read the lawsuit and that after doing so they would not comment on pending litigation.
In addition to Ferguson, the lawsuit named as defendants Ferguson's former Police Chief Thomas Jackson and Darren Wilson, the former police officer who shot Brown.
The shooting last August sparked protests around the United States over the use of deadly force by police, especially against African-American males.
A grand jury in Missouri decided last year not to bring criminal charges against Wilson, and the US Department of Justice did not charge him with civil rights violations.
The Justice Department found racial bias and a pattern of illegal actions against African-Americans by Ferguson police.
In a report, Justice Department said it had found little evidence that contradicted the account offered by Wilson, who said Brown reached into his patrol car, hit him, reached for his gun and then ran away before turning and charging the officer. Wilson, who has left the police department, said he fired on Brown out of fear for his life.
The lawsuit, which differs from the Justice Department report in several areas, accuses Wilson of destroying evidence after he shot Brown last August, saying he washed blood off his hands, and cleared and bagged the gun used in the shooting.
"We expect to put on evidence that you never heard about before, that you have never seen," Anthony Gray, a lawyer for Brown's family, told a news conference on Thursday.
Gray said evidence had not been properly presented in the previous investigations.
The lawsuit had been expected since last month, when the family expressed disappointment with the Justice Department investigation.
The lawsuit accuses Wilson of escalating the encounter with Brown by using profane language, turning his cruiser into "a weapon of unjustified force," and forcefully striking Brown with the car's door.
According to the lawsuit, the officer then grabbed Brown's clothing through the car window and fired a first gunshot, hitting the teen in the hand.
Brown ran but suddenly stopped, turned toward the officer with his hands raised, saying "Don't shoot, I don't have a gun. I'm unarmed," the lawsuit says, citing eyewitnesses that it does not name. The lawsuit says that although Brown was unarmed and posed no threat, Wilson fired the fatal volley of shots into his body.
Lawyers for Wilson were not immediately vailable to comment.
The city previously said it would establish a citizen review board, recruit diverse police officers and put into effect use of body and dashboard cameras by police officers and patrol
cars.
The lawsuit lists incidents of alleged unlawful stops and arrests of African-Americans in Ferguson, and asks for a court-appointed monitor to the city's police force for five years or until "the city of Ferguson has fully and effectually trained all of its police officers on the constitutional requirements of the use of deadly force."
aul Callan, a New York lawyer who was involved in the successful wrongful death lawsuit against former football player OJ Simpson after his acquittal in the killing of Nicole Brown, said, "The plaintiffs face a very, very difficult battle in pursuing this case because the grand jury declined toprosecute."
"The grand jury looked at the case and found that the officer acted in self-defense," he said. Callan also pointed out that there was no video of Brown's encounter with Wilson.
The threat of damages comes during a time of financial decline in Ferguson that predates rioting that broke out after the grand jury did not indict Wilson.
Its most recent budget, published in June, described its recovery from the recession as "glacial," a situation exacerbated by tornadoes in 2011 and 2013.
Sales tax receipts, its largest revenue source, fell to $5.9 million in the 2013 fiscal year, ended June 30, down 21 percent from $7 million in fiscal 2006.
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