The family lost the case...but I’d put the odds at better than 80%. What would they have to gain? Likely they had alarm bells going off that something wasn’t right.
In 2013, the family of a Florissant man sued the officer and the department, claiming the officer shot and killed their son. Court documents assert the department tried covering up the shooting as a suicide. That case was dismissed.
The family lost the case...but I’d put the odds at better than 80%. What would they have to gain? Likely they had alarm bells going off that something wasn’t right.
The following is an article about that old case:
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/man-whose-death-was-ruled-a-suicide-was-actually-killed-by-florissant-police-lawsuit-says/article_a95cfc4a-9f96-5ab3-9f0c-00c105ad3569.html
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in St. Louis on Tuesday, does not mention a self-inflicted wound. It says that Afolabi was seated in the driver’s seat of his vehicle and officers Joshua Smith and Andrew Gerwitz opened fire. It notes that the officers are white and Afolabi is black, and that the officers “used excessive and unreasonable force.” The suit says Afolabi was not resisting arrest nor did he pose a threat to the officers.
The suit against Florissant, the county and the individual officers seeks compensatory and punitive damages for two of Afolabi’s minor daughters through their mother, his ex-wife Tamonique Grady.
Grady’s attorney, James W. Schottel Jr., says the police report has several red flags, and it is unclear whether police recovered the bullet that went through Afolabi’s head. They were the same caliber as the officer’s bullets but the bullets weren’t tested to see which guns they came from, he said. He also said investigators did not test Afolabi’s hands for gunshot residue. A gun was found on the floorboard, the police report says, and the medical examiner’s office ruled the death a suicide. dismissed.
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