US family seeks R668m in death of black man tased by police

The family of a black man in Alabama who died in July after police stunned him with a Taser 13 times has filed a $36m (R668.9m) wrongful death lawsuit in federal court, alleging his death was caused by officers using excessive force.

Lawyers representing the family of the man, Jawan Dallas, 36, of Mobile, say a police body camera video, which has not been released to the public, shows two officers using a Taser on him as he begged for his life while lying prone on the ground, according to court documents.

The officers who used the Taser on Dallas have not been publicly identified. The lawsuit refers to them only as Defendant John Doe 1 and Defendant John Doe 2.

The lawsuit asserts the officers violated his Fourth Amendment right against the unlawful use of excessive force. The actions of the defendants were “wilful, and deliberate and indifferent to Jawan Dallas' federally protected rights”.

“Jawan was 36 years old. He was taken from his family too soon because Jawan Dallas had a destiny, he had life, he had plans,” said Harry Daniels, one of the civil rights attorneys representing the family, said in a press conference on Monday.

The fatal encounter unfolded as police were responding to a burglary call, and approached Dallas and another man sitting in a car nearby. Officers said the use of the Taser on Dallas was justified because he had attempted to run away. “I can't breathe. I don't want to be George Floyd,” Dallas said before he died, according to the suit, which cited a statement by a witness.

Dallas' words were a reference to the infamous 2020 killing of George Floyd, who gasped “I can't breathe” as a Minneapolis police officer pinned Floyd's neck to the ground with a knee, killing him. In the summer of 2020, Floyd's words became a rallying cry for months of protests against police violence against Black people and people of colour in cities around the world.

Mobile County district attorney Keith Blackwood announced last month that a grand jury found the officers were not criminally liable. Blackwood also said an autopsy report showed Dallas died from “underlying medical conditions”.

Neither representatives for Blackwood nor Robert Lasky, Mobile's executive director of public safety, were immediately available on Wednesday for comment about the lawsuit.

Police body camera and dashboard camera video in the case have not been released to the public despite six months of public outcry, and the incident was recently addressed by the Mobile city council. The issue remains under discussion.

Dallas' family and Ben Crump, one of its lawyers, were allowed to see the video but not copy it or distribute it to the public.

“If they won't be transparent that means they don't want any accountability,” Crump said. “They trying to bamboozle us, hoodwink, they're trying to fool us,” he said.

A trial of three police officers now under way in Tacoma, Washington, echoes the George Floyd case. Manuel Ellis, a 33-year-old Black man, was killed in March 2020 after officers punched him, put him in a chokehold and shot him with a stun gun, according to witness testimony and video evidence. Two of the officers are charged with murder, and all three are charged with manslaughter.

Reuters