A civil-rights lawsuit alleging that Little Rock police used unnecessary deadly force in the Nov. 3, 2009, shooting death of Landris Hawkins, 28, has been refiled in federal court, a year after the parties agreed to drop it for the time being.
The lawsuit was filed by Nikita Hawkins, who is Landris Hawkins' mother and the court-appointed administrator of his estate, on behalf of the estate; herself; her deceased son's father, Robert Murry; and two sisters, Deshuna Hawkins and Levonne Steele.
Defendants are officers James Christ and Jason Roberts, now-retired Little Rock Police Chief Stewart Thomas and the city.
A year ago, the plaintiff's attorney Mike Laux and the city attorney's office filed a joint motion to dismiss the case without prejudice -- which would allow it to be refiled within a year -- and Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Miller granted the request.
The request was made after the lawsuit hit several snags as its trial date approached. Laux, who was then based in Chicago and is now based in San Francisco, wanted to add claims that the defendants violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 by failing to consider Landris Hawkins' mental instability, and the city objected. There was also a dispute that prevented depositions from being completed before the court's deadline.
The new, 51-page lawsuit, filed last week, again accuses officers of using unnecessary deadly force when Landris Hawkins' grandmother, Neomia Hawkins, summoned them at 2:20 p.m. on Nov. 3, 2009, to her home at 5915 Carlyle Drive, saying her grandson was holding a knife to his throat.
The officers, standing on the front porch just beyond a glass storm door that they had propped open, said they saw Landris Hawkins pacing in a hallway holding a knife to his throat, and that he refused to drop the weapon at their insistence. They said that when Hawkins pointed a gun at his grandmother and an infant, each officer fired at least two shots.
A Deadly Force Review Board report later exonerated the officers, saying "the board felt the use of deadly force in this incident was unavoidable."
The lawsuit contends that the officers ignored General Order 309 -- Handling Mentally Ill Persons. The suit says Landris Hawkins' great-grandmother, Willie Jean Hawkins, told the officers that Landris Hawkins had vision and hearing defects, and probably couldn't see them well or understand them. It says she also told them that his "mind is bad" and that "there is something wrong with him." That, the suit says, should have prompted officers to avoid exciting him and to gently indicate that they were there to help.
Metro on 05/27/2015