Eight months after unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown was fatally shot by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, Brown’s family has filed a civil lawsuit against the city.
The family, who filed the lawsuit yesterday, is seeking $75,000 in damages. If the case goes to trial, government officials could be forced to fully review the evidence and publicly question key witnesses. The family has voiced their intent to bring charges against the city ever since a grand jury declined to indict Wilson last November.
“The bottom line is simply this: Officer Darren Wilson did not have to use this deadly force on that Saturday afternoon,” family attorney Benjamin Crump said at a press conference this morning. “We do not believe, based on the forensic evidence and the narrative given, that Michael Brown should have been killed.”
The lawsuit comes less than two months after the Department of Justice released a report that found Ferguson police and city employees regularly discriminated against the city’s Black population. Since the report’s release, multiple officials have resigned, including the city manager, police chief and municipal judge.
The city has not commented on the lawsuit.