John Crawford, 22, was shot by police after two shoppers saw him carrying a gun, then called 911.
According to the police, the callers reported that Crawford was waving what appeared to be a rifle in the store, and that he was killed after failing to obey officers’ commands to put down his weapon, which turned out to be a toy he had picked up in the store.
The mother of Crawford’s kids LeeCee Johnson refutes these claims insisting instead that the police’s actions were unjustified. She was on the phone with Crawford when the shooting occurred.
— CNN (@CNN) December 16, 2014
“We was just talking,” Johnson said. “He said he was at the video games playing videos and he went over there by the toy section where the toy guns were. And the next thing I know, he said ‘It’s not real,’ and the police start shooting and they said ‘Get on the ground,’ but he was already on the ground because they had shot him. And I could hear him just crying and screaming. I feel like they shot him down like he was not even human.”
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, names the city of Beavercreek; Sean Williams, the Beavercreek police officer who fatally shot Crawford; Sergeant David Darkow, who accompanied Williams; Police Chief Dennis Evers; and the Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
The suit said Williams shot Crawford about one second after making contact with him.
Wal-Mart officials were not immediately available for comment.
In September, a nine-member grand jury opted not indict Williams in the incident, saying police actions were justified. Surveillance video shows Crawford picking up an unpackaged BB gun off a shelf and walking through the store while talking on the phone until a white officer shot him.
— KSLA News 12 (@KSLA) December 16, 2014
Crawford’s death came just a few days before the August 9 fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Missouri, which stirred up popular protests against the use of deadly force by police.
