The family of a black man who was fatally shot by white police officers as he was holding an air rifle while he was inside a Wal-Mart in Ohio has filed a suit against all the officers involved. The family is also suing the police chief, Wal-Mart Inc. and the city of Beavercreek, Ohio.
On Aug. 5, police received an emergency call from a person inside the Wal-Mart. The individual reported that John Crawford III, 22, was inside the store in the Dayton suburb and was waving around what looked to be some sort of firearm.
What was later learned was that Crawford had only picked up the air rifle off of one of the Wal-Mart shelves as he walked about the store and was innocently carrying it around.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in a federal court and states that Crawford’s civil rights ended up being violated due to the fact he had the right to be holding it since he may have intended to purchase it later. The lawsuit also states that Wal-Mart was negligent in the incident. The family’s attorneys stated at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon that they are hoping to find justice for Crawford and are looking to help prevent what happened to him from happening to anyone else.
They feel that the police officers involved in the killing were also trying to cover up what happened, according to the New York Daily News. The family feels there may have been an attempted cover-up because of how the police treated Crawford’s girlfriend right after Crawford was killed. She was taken to the police station and one of Beavercreek’s detectives attempted to get Tasha Thomas to admit she knew where Crawford had gotten the air rifle before the officer revealed to her that Crawford had been shot and killed by the police inside the Wal-Mart store.
Thomas was sobbing and breathless and even stated she would take a polygraph test as she told the police detective she did not have a clue where Crawford got the gun. She said they only went to Wal-Mart to purchase s’mores. She was not with him when he grabbed the BB gun from the aisle.
Detective Rodney Curd bluntly stated to Thomas that if she lied to him, she might find herself on the way to jail. This was after two cops, Officer Sean Williams and Sergeant David Darkow had already fatally shot Crawford, and Thomas had no knowledge of the fact. Apparently Curd interrogated Thomas for over an hour. Thomas tried to keep her self-control, but she had no idea that Crawford had been killed until the end of the interrogation. Finally the detective informed her that due to his own actions, Crawford “is gone,” meaning he was dead.
In September, a grand jury decided that the shooting was necessary even though the gun was a fake and the caller who notified authorities later retracted his earlier account. He stated that he actually never saw Crawford point the air rifle at any of the shoppers inside the store. Surveillance footage showed Crawford walking up and down the store’s aisles, and it caught him picking up the gun, which was out of any packaging, off of a shelf while he was talking on a cell phone. It was later reported he was talking to a Lacee Johnson, who was said to be the mother of his children and an ex-girlfriend.
That specific phone call apparently caused Detective Curd to question Thomas about whether Crawford was trying to target Johnson. Yet again Thomas said she would take a lie detector test in order to prove she had no knowledge of Crawford’s gun or anything Curd was talking about, yet the detective constantly refused and accused her of lying. He informed her that she needed to be truthful with the police. Thomas went through most of the interrogation in tears, but the detective ignored that. Instead, he asked her if she was under the influence of alcohol or drugs. She just put her face in her hands.
He responded with letting her know that it appeared her eyes seemed to look sort of “messed up” and that she acted “lethargic.” He added that he did not know if she was upset or something else was wrong with her. The detective later explained that he had no idea that the air rifle had been on sale at Wal-Mart and had just assumed Crawford had carried it into the store with Thomas aiding him in doing it.
The family plans on filing the suit against the police officers doing the shooting; Crawford, Detective Curd, the police chief and everyone else they believe are involved with the situation. They hope they can help prevent such a travesty from happening again to someone else.
By Michelle Larson