Father sues over Missouri fatal 2015 police shooting of son

ST. LOUIS – The father of an 18-year-old killed in a St. Louis police shooting alleges in a wrongful death lawsuit that his son was shot in the back as he ran.

Dennis Ball-Bey says his son, Mansur Ball-Bey, was a church youth leader without a criminal record when he was killed in August 2015. The suit names the city of St. Louis, former police chief Sam Dotson and the two white officers who fired at Ball-Bey, who was black, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

The officers, Ronald Vaughan and Kyle Chandler, told investigators that Mansur Ball-Bey brandished a gun as he fled after police served a warrant at a home. In June 2016, then-Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce declined to file charges against Vaughn and Chandler, saying a gun found discarded at the scene appeared to match photos of a gun Ball-Bey was seen holding in photos posted on social media.

The wrongful death lawsuit, however, alleges that Mansur Ball-Bey was unarmed. It says that the two police officers violated Mansur Ball-Bey’s rights and used inappropriate force, and that the violation was committed “as a result of the policies and customs of the St. Louis Police Department,” which was under Dotson’s supervision at the time.

Jeff Roorda, the police union’s spokesman, said he was not in a position to comment. The officers’ attorney, Brian Millikan, said previously that the shooting was a “tragedy but was absolutely justified.”

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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com