Long
Island mom whose unarmed son was shot dead by cop sues Suffolk County Police
Department
A Long Island mother sued Suffolk county and eight of its
police officers Thursday, charging that the cops murdered her unarmed
26-year-old son last September by shooting him in his bedroom and letting him
bleed to death without providing medical care.
"Nothing can
bring my son back. He was a good kid, but he was deathly afraid of the police.
I don't know how this could have happened," Patricia Callahan said at a
press conference with another son, Christopher Callahan, and their lawyer, Amy
Marion.
Police ruled the
midday shooting of the unarmed former heroin addict as an accident and a grand
jury convened in January agreed.
However, Marion
called it "a senseless and horrible death" caused by poorly trained
cops who were too quick to shoot and too slow to admit error and summon help.
"These officers
shot blindly into the bedroom, killing Kevin Callahan," Marion said. She
said Thomas Wilson, the young officer who fired the fatal shot, told his
supervisors that he "had not been confronted" so "there was no
basis for speculative fear" that triggered his discharge.
Police have said the
officers entered the home after Callahan's brother Christopher reported to 911
that there might be a man with a gun endangering his brother. They said the
officers found the house empty — until they heard someone move in a basement
bedroom.
In a report issued
months ago, cops said that when the door suddenly closed on one officer, he was
trapped with his pistol exposed inside the room. Fearing that his weapon would
be taken he fired to stop someone from "killing" him.
According to court
papers, Wilson fired at least two shots through the door from the hallway
outside.
Marion said the
medical examiner's report showed Callahan was shot in the chest and abdomen and
a third time at close range in the back as he cowered in a corner behind the
door.
The lawyer said cops
took the mother and Christopher Callahan into custody, grilling them for an
hour on Kevin Callahan’s drug and criminal history before telling them late in
the afternoon that he had died.
The family's private
investigator, Jay Salpeter, said the medical examiner did not pronounce him
dead until 7:50 p.m. and the body was not removed until 11 p.m., 10 hours after
the shooting.
Marion noted that the
cops involved in the shooting were not hurt, but they were all rushed
immediately to a nearby hospital while Callahan got no medical attention.
Marion and her
clients accused the Suffolk County Police of orchestrating a coverup. They
charge in their federal lawsuit that they were denied their constitutional
rights, unlawfully detained and falsely imprisoned as part of a longstanding
pattern of police abuse in the county.
"I'm outraged
that I can't call 911 to help my brother in a situation where I thought a gun
was being held to him to find out that the police went in there and took my
brother's life," Christopher Callahan said yesterday.
There was no
immediate response from the Suffolk District Attorney.
Pregnant woman who was shocked by police stun gun sues city
A pregnant woman who was shocked by a stun gun during a
dispute last week over a parking ticket filed a lawsuit in federal court
Thursday against the city of Chicago, alleging that the police officer's
conduct was "illegal, unwarranted and brutal."
The lawsuit by Tiffany Rent, 30, also alleged that her two
young children witnessed the incident. The suit listed the two — a 9-year-old
boy and a 3-year-old girl — as victims as well, accusing police of intentional
infliction of emotional distress.
According to the lawsuit, a Chicago police officer used a
Taser on Rent even though she was visibly pregnant. Rent said she was eight
months pregnant.
She had been ticketed for parking in a handicapped spot in
the lot of a Walgreens in the 10300 block of South Michigan Avenue in the
Roseland neighborhood.
At a news conference to announce the lawsuit, Rent said she
was waiting in the vehicle while her fiance stopped in the Walgreens. She said
she had just stepped out of her SUV for a moment to retrieve her daughter when she
was ticketed.
Police at the time said Rent tore up the ticket and threw it
at the officer. The officer then got out of his car to write her a ticket for
littering and asked her for identification, police said.
"You ain't arresting (expletive)," a police report
quoted Rent as saying.
According to the police report, the officer warned Rent he
would use the stun gun if she drove away. The officer fired the stun gun as she
put her SUV into gear, police said.
"I don't think he should have gone that far," Rent
told reporters with tears in her eyes. "It just makes me scared of the
Chicago Police Department."
The lawsuit also alleged that the officer as well as others
who had joined him at the scene "mocked and laughed" at Rent after
she had been shocked.
Keenan Saulter, one of Rent's lawyers, said it's unclear
whether there will be long-term health effects from the shock, though her
pregnancy remains stable at this point.
Still, lawyers hope the lawsuit will lead to stricter
requirements for Taser use for Chicago police officers, Saulter said.
"Taser use is serious. It should not be used
willy-nilly," he said. "We have to be able to ask police officers to
use discretion."
Spokesmen for the city's Law Department as well as the
Chicago police declined to comment on the lawsuit.
The officer who shocked Rent as well as two other officers
at the scene were named as defendants in the lawsuit in addition to the city.
Saulter disputed that Rent was attempting to drive from the
scene, saying her vehicle was trapped between a brick wall and the police
officer's vehicle.
Rent was charged with misdemeanor offenses.