A federal jury was unable to reach a verdict on Monday in the wrongful death lawsuit against two state police troopers linked to the fatal shooting of 12-year-old Michael Ellerbe. Deliberations will pick up again on Tuesday.
Ellerbe's father, Michael Hickenbottom, filed the suit accusing troopers Samuel Nassan and Juan Curry of excessive force and other offenses, after a coroner's inquest cleared the two men of criminal wrongdoing.

Attorney Geoffrey Fieger is asking the jury for more than $50 million in damages to punish troopers for allegedly covering up how the shooting occurred.

Ellerbe was shot in the back while running from the police, who had stopped him in a stolen SUV in Uniontown on Dec. 24, 2002.

In his closing argument on Thursday morning, Fieger described the boy as "target acquisition" and said he was "dehumanized" by the troopers.

"We give power to police, and in this case they abused it," Fieger said. "We will never tolerate this behavior. It's unacceptable in a civilized society. You can never shoot a child. He was no danger to them. You chased a little boy into a back yard and you shot him."

Though Ellerbe was unarmed, Nassan said he thought the boy had a weapon, because he was running with one hand in his pocket.

Fieger told jurors, "All of his life ultimately came down to a minute to two minutes of agony of being drowned in his own blood, paralyzed from the waist down."