Suit Alleges Pattern and Practice of Using Overly Aggrgessive Tactics in Black Areas

From [HERE] and [HERE] WEST MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Jury selection began Monday in a $250 million civil lawsuit [READ] filed against two West Memphis police officers involved in the shooting death of 12-year old Deaunta Farrow. The trial is expected to last a week. Last October, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from officers Erik Sammis and Jimmy Evans, who maintained the lawsuit shouldn't go to trial.

The officers were conducting nighttime surveillance when Sammis fatally shot DeAunta Farrow. Police have said the boy was holding a toy gun in a dimly lit parking lot. When “the suspect” didn't drop the "weapon", Sammis said he feared for his life and opened fire. Only then, he says, did he realize that the “gun” was a toy gun and that he had just shot and killed a 12-year-old child.

Farrow's family and the family of a boy with Farrow at the time of the shooting sued the officers, saying they used excessive force and violated their civil rights. Family members and others who were eyewitnesses say DeAunta Farrow was gunned down without cause.