October 07, 2003

(Updated) Kendra James Family Files Lawsuit, As Community Report On Shooting Finally Hits The Web

Note: This post has been updated. Any and all updates appear at the end of the original post.

As expected would happen at some point, the family of Kendra James today filed suit against the City of Portland, the Police Bureau, and three police officers:

The lawsuit alleges Officer Scott McCollister used excessive force and caused her "wrongful death" on May 5 when he fired a single shot that killed James as she tried to drive away from the traffic stop on North Skidmore Street. It seeks $10 million in economic and punitive damages.
"McCollister's intentional and wrongful act of shooting and killing (James) was entirely unjustified under the circumstances then existing," the suit states. "McCollister violated decedent's Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights by using excessive and deadly force when it was not necessary to prevent (her) escape."
...
The legal action also faults McCollister and fellow Officers Rick Bean and Kenneth Reynolds, who assisted in the traffic stop, of failing to develop a tactical plan to take James into custody, and for failing to provide emergency medical care to James once she was shot.

Or, to put it more directly, as KGW does:

"This poor fella is not going to get his mom back and my client is never going to get his daughter back," attorney Ernest Warren said as he clutched James' 3-year old son while talking with reporters Monday.

Meanwhile, perhaps coincidentally, the Albina Ministerial Alliance community report (pdf) on the Kendra James shooting is now available (via the ACLU of Oregon website, not the Portland Copwatch website), a month after the public meeting to release its findings.

October 07, 2003

Update

I'll have more on this later, but a couple of strange points about the report. First, it badly needed at least a semi-professional proofreader. Outside of grammar and syntax issues, I'm fairly certain there's no such thing as "creditability."

Far more important, however, is what the Hell happened to all of the recommendations? The report as posted online includes only thirteen -- ten aimed at the City or Police Bureau, three at the community. But at the September public meeting to announce the report's findings, members of the committee read through more than thirty recommendations.

Meanwhile, there's more on the lawsuit from KOIN and KATU.

Posted at 02:51 PM | PermalinkComments (0) | TrackBacks (1)
More In Law Enforcement & Legal Issues

« Previous Next »

Trackbacks (1)

  1. Thin blue race. on 28 Apr 2004

    Portland bloggers Ethan Lindsey and Christopher Frankonis (the One True b!X) are both typing up blow-by-blow coverage of the public inquest into the shooting of James Jahar Perez by Portland police officer Jason Sery. It’s the first such inquest...