Little Rock police officer Josh Hastings waves to some Little Rock Police officers as he is escorted out of the Pulaski County Courthouse after his manslaughter trial ended in a 2nd mistrial in 2013. [MORE]

From [HERE] Just two weeks before a federal jury is to begin hearing evidence in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the mother of Bobby Joe Moore III, a 15-year-old African American boy who was shot and killed by white police officers outside a Little Rock apartment complex in 2012, a judge has thrown out the claims against the city and its former police chief. As a result only one defendant remains, former officer Josh Hastings.

Hastings, now of Bauxite, was tried twice in 2013 in Pulaski County Circuit Court on a manslaughter charge stemming from his shooting of Moore, but in both cases, the juries became deadlocked and a mistrial was declared. Prosecutors cited the deadlocks in declining to try him a third time.

In an order signed Friday, Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Miller granted a motion for summary judgment filed on behalf of Little Rock and Stuart Thomas, a retired city police chief. 

 In September 2012, Officer Josh Hastings was charged with manslaughter in the shooting death of fifteen-year-old Bobby Moore. According to the charging documents, Moore was shot in the head as he was backing away from the officer trying to flee in a stolen car. Officer Hastings had been on the force for five years and had been suspended six times previously. In April, 2014, after two deadlocked juries, charges were dropped as prosecutors said no jury was willing to convict Hastings. He had been fired from his job, but his lawyer said he would take steps to return to the department [MORE]. 

The department fired Hastings after an internal investigation into the shooting, but the lawsuit alleged the city and Thomas should nevertheless be held responsible for failing to properly train Hastings, for failing to adequately supervise and discipline him, for maintaining a widespread custom of excessive force and untruthfulness, and for hiring Hastings in the first place.