MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – Lawyers who filed a federal lawsuit last week on behalf of the family of a teenager shot to death in a SWAT Team raid last year called the incident “racially motivated.”
Randall Adjessom, 16, died during a Mobile Police Department SWAT Team raid of his home on Monday, November 13, 2023. The incident has sparked a federal wrongful-death lawsuit against the city.(Grant & Eisenhofer)
The shooting occurred Nov. 13 last year and resulted in the death of 16-year-old Randall Adjessom as police officers were trying to arrest his brother, who did not live in the home and was not present, according to the lawsuit.
The wrongful-death suit, filed last week in U.S. District Court, names the city of Mobile and unidentified officers. It seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages but asks for an amount sufficient to “deter similar prohibited behavior by defendants and other law enforcement officers in the future.”
Attorneys for the family said in a news release that they have viewed police body camera footage from the raid, which they argued demonstrates that the officers acted unlawfully, failed to render any aid for four minutes and did not get him to a hospital that was 8 minutes away for approximately 40 minutes.
“Randall’s mother is demonstrating great courage in bringing this action in her late son’s name and to do what she can to stop the rampant, senseless, outrageous police abuse against Mobile’s minority community,” the lawyers said in a prepared statement. “The Complaint is replete with revelations from our pre-suit investigation, perhaps none more repulsive than the fact that MPD body-worn camera (BWC) video of the shooting clearly shows Randall begin to retreat after realizing the intruders into his family home were members of the police force when he was repeatedly shot and killed in cold blood.”
Mobile police at the time said Adjessom pointed a laser-sighted pistol at the officers and that one of the officers opened fire.
The Adjessom family’s civil complaint describes Randall Adjessom’s actions as “imminently foreseeable” and justified for a teenager complaint contends had no idea the unknown intruders were police officers.
Police had come to the house on Sheringham Drive, near the intersection of Cottage Hill and Azalea roads, before dawn in search of Adjessom’s brother. A warrant had been issued for Deangelo Adjessom’s arrest on charges of drug possession and distribution. Court records indicate that police found just 8 grams of marijuana.
The shooting on Sheringham Drive was the last of four violent encounters between citizens and police and results in deaths. It prompted Mayor Sandy Stimpson to order a halt to predawn raids in most cases. However, a factual dispute remains about the November 2023 raid. The lawsuit alleges that police did not knock and announce themselves before entering. Paul Prine, who was police chief during the incident, said at the time that officers did.
“We understand especially that time of the morning, that we need to wake folks up,” he said. “I am confident that this scenario, that our officers, multiple officers, did everything they could to knock and announce and make their presence known before making their way into the residence.”
The lawsuit, however, contends officers yelled “police” one time as they used a battering ram to knock down the front door and broke a separate window in the living room. The complaint alleges that Randall made no verbal threat and did not attempt to fire his gun. The suit alleges that one of the officers shot the retreating teenager four times in the abdomen and torso.
While Randall was in the process of retreating, and despite the fact that he had not made any verbal threats or attempted to fire the weapon, John Doe Mobile Police Officer 1 shot Randall four times through the abdomen and torso. The complaint states that the officers then stepped over Randall, with one of the asking, “What are we going to do about this?”
A grand jury in October indicted Deangelo Adjessom on charges of possession of Adjessom has been indicted on charges of possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, and possession of a firearm. He also faces a first-degree assault charge in a separate indictment related to a shooting on Delmar Drive in Mobile in January.
The lawyers for the Adjessom family included the entire 103-page report on Mobile policing practices prepared at the mayor’s request by former U.S. attorney Kenyen Brown. That report did back the Police Department’s conclusion that the shooting was justified under the circumstances, but it found fault with the decision to use the SWAT Team at all. It pointed to an internal affairs investigation indicating that the decision to use SWAT was based on a “manpower shortage,” in the unit that serves warrants and not a risk assessment.
The attorneys for the Adjessom family argued that report bolsters their allegations that the city failed to properly train its police officers and that Randall Adjessom was the victim of “systemic dysfunction” with the Police Department.
“This filing is a major step for a grieving family intent on holding accountable – at a Federal jury trial – all those responsible for this unquestionably foreseeable and preventable tragedy,” the lawyers said in the news release.
Copyright 2024 WALA. All rights reserved.
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