From [HERE] The family of a man shot and killed last month by a county police officer outside the City Place Mall in Silver Spring filed a $10 million wrongful death claim Friday against the Montgomery County Police Department.
Private Civil Rights Attorney Brian K. McDaniel filed the lawsuit in Montgomery County Circuit Court on behalf of the family of Emmanuel O. Okutuga, a 26-year-old Bowie State University student who was shot and killed Feb. 19 by Officer Christopher Jordan outside the City Place Mall in downtown Silver Spring.
Police said the shooting occurred at 5:15 p.m., when Jordan arrived at the City Place Mall after reports that Okutuga had assaulted a mall security guard inside the mall. Jordan confronted Okutuga outside the mall, where Okutuga was wielding an ice pick, according to police, who said Jordan shot Okutuga twice after Okutuga repeatedly refused to drop the ice pick.
McDaniel argued that Jordan was not justified in shooting Okutuga, saying that witnesses testified that Okutuga did not advance on Jordan or threaten him or civilian bystanders in any way. McDaniel also claimed the police department failed to properly train Jordan in the proper use of deadly force and should not have allowed Jordan—a four-and-a-half-year police veteran—to handle such calls.
"In essence, it's a wrongful death claim, meaning that the excessive force that was used by the officer wrongfully caused the death of Emmanuel Okutuga," McDaniel said at a candlelight vigil held outside City Place Mall Friday evening, which was attended by about 20 of Okutuga's family members and friends.
"There was nothing in [Jordan's] original statement suggesting that Mr. Okutuga represented the type of danger to that officer or any other civilians present that would make it necessary for the officer to use that level of force," McDaniel said at the vigil.
McDaniel also mentioned the possibility of filing criminal charges against Jordan, a process that will need to be approved as valid by the Maryland Attorney General's Office, McDaniel said.
Montgomery County Police spokesman Capt. Paul Starks deferred comment to the county attorney's office Friday. Patricia P. Via, a division chief in the Office of the County Attorney for Montgomery County, likewise declined to comment on the claim as her office had not been presented the document as of Friday afternoon.
"We haven't seen it, so we haven't reviewed the allegations yet," she said. "When we do get it, we will follow the normal procedure, which is to review the allegations and determine the best way to defend against those allegations."
In accordance with the department's policy, Jordan was placed on paid administrative leave Feb. 19 pending an investigation into the shooting, Starks said.
Much of McDaniel's case depends on proving that Jordan used excessive force when he shot Okutuga and that the police department failed in its responsibility to properly train Jordan to handle deadly force situations, according to McDaniel.
"Whatever God's plan is, I respect that," said Deborah Okutuga, Emmanuel Okutuga's sister, at Friday's vigil. "I know we need to move on, but we're here to make sure this doesn't happen again; ... to make sure it's not me, it's not you, it's not anyone who has to lose a loved one like this."
All Montgomery County police recruits undergo up to 160 hours of training in the use of force —including hand-to-hand combat, batons and firearms—during their initial training in Montgomery County Police Academy, said Officer John Wilkes, a use-of-force instructor at the academy for the past 13 years. Wilkes has spent the past three years teaching deadly force at the academy's firearms range in Poolesville.
"It's permeated throughout the entire academy, because the department knows the ramifications if someone doesn't employ it accurately," Wilkes said, adding that even veteran officers are required to re-qualify with their firearms at least twice a year and receive mandatory training each year.
The department ranks use of force into four tiers, beginning with the implied force of an officer's presence on a scene and proceeding through verbal commands and physical action. The use of deadly force, such as with a firearm, is the highest.
"It is the policy of this department to allow its officers to use only that force which is reasonable and necessary to effect an arrest or to protect themselves or others from personal [injury or death]" the department's policy reads in part.
Additionally, officers are trained to regard anyone wielding a knife or similar sharp object as potentially able to reach and injure the officer before defensive action can be taken if that person is within 31 feet of the officer, Wilkes said. The distance, an FBI standard, was recently increased from 21 feet.
"We're finding out now that 21 feet is really only applicable for an officer that is extremely diligent, so we're advocating that's the minimum and that's only if the scene dictates it, you can't always get that distance," he said.
At this time, police are not releasing how far apart Okutuga and Jordan were when the shooting occurred.
Officers are taught to avoid engaging anyone armed with a knife-like object up close, and the pepper spray provided to officers is only effective within 10 feet of the target; well within the danger zone officers are taught to avoid when facing someone armed with a knife, Wilkes said.
There is speculation that Jordan was one of the department's specially trained officers qualified to use a Taser gun, but that his Taser may not have been working properly Feb. 19 and he was not wearing it, Deborah Okutuga said, citing her initial conversations with police following the shooting.
"If his Taser gun was working my brother would still be here," she said through tears at the vigil.
The department's Taser guns have a range of up to 10 feet, Wilkes said.
Emmanuel Okutuga also caused several disturbances at Bowie State University and assaulted a University of Maryland campus employee at the university's College Park campus in the days leading up to the shooting, according to officials from both universities. McDaniel is awaiting additional information and declined to comment on these incidents Friday.
Emmanuel Okutuga did have a history of mental instability and was prescribed medication for his condition at the time of his death, McDaniel said.
"He was prescribed to be taking medication [but] the question of whether or not he was actually taking his medication at that time is something we're still fleshing out," McDaniel said.