NYPD Execution Or Accident? $10 Million Lawsuit to Decide: Malcolm Ferguson Killed By Cop, But Story Differs

(CBS)  BRONX Opening statements expected Tuesday in a lawsuit filed by an angry mother whose son was shot and killed by police, seven years ago.

She claims it was an execution. The Bronx D.A ruled it an accident.

Opening arguments are expected to begin this morning in the $10 million wrongful-death suit brought by Malcolm Ferguson's mother.

It was more than seven years ago that the 23-year-old convicted drug dealer was shot to death by narcotics police officer Louis Rivera during a struggle for the police officer's gun in a dark building on Boynton Avenue.

Bronx District attorney Robert Johnson ruled the shooting accidental after a three-month investigation, so the case was never presented to a grand jury.

The 23-year-old Ferguson had been arrested five times before on the block where he was killed, just three blocks from where cops shot and killed Amadou Diallo.

Ferguson's mother has called her son's death a police-style execution.

"Just because a person has a record does not make them not human. That boy was human like you and me. Anyone can make a mistake. That don't [sic] give you the right to kill him," said Juanita Young, Ferguson's mother.

Officer Rivera is still on active duty with the NYPD.

The Police Department says he declined to comment on the wrongful death suit. [MORE]