Lawsuit: NOPD Busts into Home on Marijuana Search - White Officer Fatally Shoots Unarmed, Shirtless Black Man

From [HERE] The family of a Black man who was fatally shot during a drug raid in Gentilly a year ago filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the city of New Orleans. Relatives of Wendell Allen accuse the New Orleans Police Department of various civil rights violations in connection with the deadly shooting on March 7, 2012.

Officer Joshua Colclough, who is white, fired a single bullet into the chest of Allen, 20, while police executed a search warrant related to a marijuana investigation at Allen's Prentiss Street home, NOPD has alleged -as the home had been under surveillance for marijuana sale activity.

Allen - shirtless and wearing only jeans and sneakers in the home's stairwell -- had no weapons on him. Several children between the ages of 1 and 14 were inside the house when Allen was killed. A state grand jury indicted Colclough on one count of manslaughter in Allen's death, and he awaits trial. A date has not been set.

Before he was gunned down, the suit states, Allen attended Navarro College in Texas, but he returned to New Orleans to be near his family. Allen worked for Richard's Disposal; and on the day he was shot, he had just come home from playing basketball with his friends and was resting in Davin's upstairs room. Members of NOPD's 3rd District narcotics unit subsequently broke down the door to the Allen residence. Allen heard cursing, crying and screaming, so he started running down the stairs to see what was happening, the suit asserts.

Allen was shot. The police discovered about 4 ½ ounces of marijuana, and Davin Allen was charged with simple possession in Municipal Court. In the lawsuit, Davin Allen alleges he was unjustly booked following the raid. Police never linked Wendell Allen to the pot, the suit says.

The suit alleges that the children in the home when Allen was killed have since been suffering from nightmares, crying spells, anxiety and fears that the police are going to murder Davin Allen. The city is culpable, the suit says in part, because it has failed to properly screen, supervise, discipline, train and control its police officers.

The plaintiffs also allege that the police subjected them to gross negligence, intentional emotional distress and a litany of other indignities.

The suit questions Colclough's competence, claiming he failed the multiple-choice section of the police recruit exam in 2006 prior to passing it in 2007. Additionally, the suit says, Colclough got into a traffic accident in 2009 by disobeying a stop sign while driving off-duty in an NOPD vehicle.

It was determined that Colclough wasn't responding to an emergency call. He was suspended from the force for five days and ordered to attend a course on avoiding car wrecks, the suit notes.

Aside from the city, defendants listed in the suit are Colclough, Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas, five officers whom the plaintiffs have not been able to identify and Mayor Mitch Landrieu. Plaintiffs include Davin Allen, Wendell's brother; Allen's mother, Natasha Allen; and children who were present during the raid.

The plaintiffs, represented by Attorney Lionel "Lon" Burns, seek a variety of damages associated with what they argue is the wrongful death of Wendell Allen.

Colclough's lawyer, Claude Kelly, couldn't be reached for comment Thursday. Attorneys for Colclough have previously argued that the officer acted reasonably, simply making a quick decision under stressful circumstances.

Allen, at 6-foot-3, was a star on the basketball team at Frederick Douglass High School. He averaged 21 points per game at one time and landed a spot on The Times-Picayune's All-Metro team for small schools in 2010.

In a separate but somewhat similar case dating back to last March, a man who was shot by New Orleans police during a shootout in Mid-City that left his brother dead and two officers badly wounded filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city on Feb. 27.

Then, in Orleans Parish Civil District Court, a former officer who participated in that shooting sued the dead man, Earl Sipp III; Sipp's estate; and his brother, Justin Sipp, alleging pain and suffering, lost wages and emotional distress.

The ex-policeman, Jason Giroir, ultimately resigned from NOPD after he wrote, "Act like a Thug Die like one!" under a WWLTV.com article about citizens in New Orleans rallying to protest the killing of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin. Giroir made the online post while he was being investigated for his role in the Sipp shooting.