The household of a Black man fatally shot by a sheriff’s officer in Houston filed a wrongful dying lawsuit in opposition to the sergeant, Garrett Hardin, and the Harris County Sheriff’s Workplace on Wednesday, alleging that Roderick Brooks’ dying was avoidable partly as a result of Hardin had critically injured a person one week earlier than capturing Brooks however had not confronted any disciplinary motion.
Hardin shot Brooks, 47, on July 8 whereas Brooks was pinned on the bottom. Hardin and different regulation officers had chased Brooks for allegedly stealing detergent from a reduction retailer.
The division launched physique digicam footage of the incident weeks later, exhibiting Hardin stunning Brooks together with his stun gun, pinning him down on the bottom after which capturing him within the neck at shut vary.
At one level earlier than the capturing, Brooks grabbed Hardin’s stun gun when it fell however by no means pointed it in his course nor gained actual management of the system. He was pinned on his abdomen on the time.
“I’ll fucking shoot you,” Hardin stated they struggled over the stun gun, in accordance with bodycam footage.
“Harris County is harboring a felony,” the household’s lawyer, Sadiyah Evangelista Karriem, advised HuffPost. “We’ll use each instrument of justice that we are able to to get justice for Roderick Brooks.”
The lawsuit asserts that one week earlier than killing Brooks, Hardin approached a person who was below the affect and used his stun gun on him, inflicting the person to fall over an overpass and land 35 ft under. The person was “critically injured,” in accordance with the go well with.
Houston ABC affiliate KTRK-TV reported on the incident following Brooks’ killing.
Sheriff’s workplace coverage says that deputies are usually not supposed to make use of electrical shock gadgets on people who find themselves on an “elevated or unstable floor,” the lawsuit says.
Hardin was by no means positioned on administrative depart within the case, and one week later he shot Brooks.
A HuffPost report from August reported that the Harris County Sheriff’s Workplace has suspended Hardin with out pay on eight events since 2004 for infractions that embrace crashing his patrol automobile into one other automobile, giving false statements to his supervisors and making lewd and sexual remarks to officers working below him.
Hardin has been positioned on paid administrative depart whereas the division investigates the Brooks capturing.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Workplace didn’t reply to a request for remark. The district lawyer’s workplace stated the case has been handed over to a grand jury.
“A Civil Rights Division prosecutor goes to the scene of each officer-involved capturing. Prosecutors totally and independently assessment all of the proof in every capturing and current all of that proof to grand jurors who decide whether or not an indictment is warranted,” a press release from the district lawyer’s workplace stated.
“We do that to make sure that a grand jury, which is comprised of members of the neighborhood, determines whether or not there may be adequate proof for a felony cost.”