The parents of Michael Brown on Thursday sued the city of Ferguson, Missouri, and the police officer who killed their son, in a wrongful death lawsuit seeking financial damages and a court order against racially biased policing.
Michael Brown Sr and Lesley McSpadden alleged that police officer Darren Wilson “unjustifiably shot and killed” the unarmed 18-year-old “using an unnecessary and unreasonable amount of force in violation of [his] constitutionally guaranteed right to life.”
Brown Sr and McSpadden requested more than $75,000 in compensation, punitive damages and a compliance monitor to oversee the use of force by all police officers in the St Louis suburb, where intense protests flared following their son’s death last August.
They also sought an order permanently banning the use of policing tactics by the city that “demean, disregard, or under serve its African American population”.
The lawsuit, which also names the former Ferguson police chief Thomas Jackson as a defendant, was filed at the circuit court for St Louis County, according to a statement from the family’s attorneys.
Jackson and the city are accused of sharing responsibility for Brown’s wrongful death by hiring Wilson, training him and keeping him working.
The civil action is likely to be the Brown family’s final opportunity to hold authorities responsible for the death of their son. It follows decisions by state and federal authorities not to bring criminal charges against Wilson, the former Ferguson police officer who killed Brown last year, prompting protests and clashes between demonstrators and police.
Brown was shot dead by Wilson, who is white, on 9 August after a struggle that followed the officer stopping Brown and a friend for jaywalking in a residential side street.
Demonstrations that broke out on the streets of Ferguson over perceived police brutality were met with a crackdown by riot police who shot teargas and rubber bullets into the crowds.
The death was a flashpoint, reviving a national debate over the police’s use of force, particularly against African Americans. It led to protests over other fatal encounters with law enforcement from California to New York.
Wilson testified that he fired repeatedly at Brown when the 18-year-old turned and charged at him after fleeing a scuffle at the officer’s patrol car. Some witnesses told police that Brown was surrendering with his hands up when he was shot. But this account was ultimately rejected by a grand jury in St Louis and civil rights officials in the US Department of Justice.
After declining to prosecute Wilson on civil rights charges, Justice Department officials published a scathing report on the criminal justice system of Ferguson, in which the city was accused of systematically mistreating the African Americans who make up more than two-thirds of its population. The report detailed racist emails exchanged by city officials and found the city’s judge and court clerk were fixing traffic tickets for colleagues and friends while inflicting a punishing regime on low-income residents.
The judge and court clerk were among a series of senior city employees to lose their jobs following the publication of the report. The city manager and two senior police officers were also removed.
Justice Department officials are now negotiating a so-called “consent decree” with Ferguson city leaders, which will require the city to make a series of reforms to the criminal justice system or face being sued by the federal government.
