Tuesday, August 01, 2006

One million dollar wrongful death lawsuit filed against Nevada police officer

The father of a Nevada resident who was shot to death in the Super 8 Motel parking lot has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a Nevada police officer.
In the lawsuit, which was filed July 19 in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Rollin Wallace says Officer Lukas Gibson shot Wallace's son, Darren Eugene Wallace "maliciously, intentionally, willfully, without just cause or excuse" on July 21, 2005.
A press release issued by the Nevada Police Department and printed in the Nevada Daily Mail July 26, 2005, said the incident started with "an officer (Mark Burger) attempting to stop a vehicle, driven by Darren Wallace, on East Austin Boulevard at Barrett Street. Police said the vehicle left the city headed south on Barrett Street and a short time later was spotted in the north parking lot of the Super 8 Motel."
Gibson and Burger "stopped the vehicle in the lot and both got out to confront Wallace and the vehicle started at the officers at a high rate of speed, going in between the two police vehicles in what officers said was an apparent attempt to strike one of the officers. (Gibson) fired several shots at the vehicle. One shot struck and fatally wounded Wallace."
In the lawsuit, Wallace's father says the shots were fired "without provocation."
"Shooting and killing Darren Eugene Wallace was not reasonably necessary force to preserve the peace and maintain order or to overcome any resistance to authority, because (he) was unarmed. Gibson did not know the identity of the driver and had no reason to believe he was violent, and Gibson was in no imminent danger."
Wallace is seeking $1 million.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

so....you can't harm someone with a car? I just don't get how easy it is for people to sue others now days!