The household of a 37-year-old Black man who was killed by Aurora police final 12 months has filed a wrongful dying lawsuit in opposition to town of Aurora and the officer who shot him, based on courtroom paperwork.
Kilyn Lewis was unarmed and holding a cellular phone when Aurora SWAT officer Michael Dieck shot him within the car parking zone of an condo complicated final Could. Lewis was shot inside six seconds of officers surrounding him and shouting instructions, in accordance to body-worn-camera video launched by the police division.
The lawsuit alleges Dieck’s use of power in opposition to Lewis was unreasonable and violated a number of constitutional protections, regardless of Arapahoe County District Lawyer John Kellner’s ruling that the officer was justified.
It additionally alleges that Dieck’s “keen and wanton” conduct counts as assault and battery inflicting wrongful dying.
Dieck breached his “responsibility of cheap care” as a police officer when he fatally shot Lewis, the lawsuit states.
Aurora officers haven’t but been served with the lawsuit or been capable of converse to the household’s attorneys, metropolis spokesman Ryan Luby stated in an e mail to JHB.
“As we now have said quite a few occasions beforehand, each investigatory physique – internally and externally – chargeable for reviewing officer-involved shootings in Aurora decided that the officer acted lawfully on this case,” Luby said. “Aurora Metropolis Lawyer Pete Schulte agrees with these determinations and his workplace will strongly defend the actions of the officer and the Aurora Police Division.”
Kellner, the district lawyer, wrote in his determination letter that Dieck’s use of power was justified underneath Colorado regulation. He stated the officer “moderately believed there was an imminent hazard of dying or critical bodily harm.”
The lawsuit argues that “no cheap individual” in Dieck’s place would have perceived Lewis as a menace.
Lewis, who was needed on suspicion of tried first-degree homicide in a separate Aurora capturing, had been underneath surveillance for a number of days main as much as the capturing and officers knew he wasn’t armed, the lawsuit states.
Lewis was additionally making an attempt to adjust to the Aurora officers’ instructions when he was shot, based on the lawsuit.
“Earlier than fatally capturing Kilyn, … Dieck didn’t difficulty any verbal warning that he would shoot, nor did he permit Kilyn enough time to adjust to the overlapping and conflicting instructions being shouted at him, as Kilyn was making an attempt to take action,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit additionally argues that town had the “proper and talent to manage” Dieck’s actions.
The household is searching for compensation for previous and future losses from Lewis’s dying — together with for ache, struggling and emotional misery — and a jury trial.
Elisabeth Owen with Denver-based The Vanguard Collective LLC, Brad Irwin with Centennial-based Irwin Fraley PLLC and Dale Galipo and Ben Levine with the California-based Regulation Places of work of Dale Okay. Galipo are representing the household.
Aurora’s unbiased consent decree monitor raised questions on Lewis’s dying in October, together with why Aurora’s SWAT was concerned in executing a Denver arrest warrant, why officers didn’t try to make use of any much less deadly choices when arresting Lewis and why Dieck was nonetheless employed by the Aurora Police Division after being concerned in earlier shootings.
Nonetheless, the inner assessment by the Aurora Police Division, which included the monitor, concluded in November that Dieck had not violated company coverage.
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