ST. LOUIS • Almost three years after Mansur Ball-Bey was killed in an officer-involved shooting, his father has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of St. Louis, the two officers who fired at Ball-Bey and former police chief Sam Dotson.
Dennis Ball-Bey’s lawsuit, which seeks unspecified monetary damages, was filed in federal court here on Friday, just days before the three-year anniversary of the Aug. 19, 2015, incident.
In addition to Dotson and the city, the lawsuit names as defendants police Officers Ronald Vaughn and Kyle Chandler, who fired the fatal shot.
Vaughn and Chandler told investigators in 2015 that Mansur Ball-Bey, 18, brandished a gun at them as he fled after police served a warrant at a home in the city’s Fountain Park neighborhood.
The lawsuit contends Ball-Bey was unarmed at the time of his death and was shot in the back by police as he ran. The lawsuit alleges 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.
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Police and the circuit attorney’s office conducted separate investigations into the shooting. In June 2016, then-Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce declined to file charges against Vaughn and Chandler.
According to the lawsuit, Mansur Ball-Bey was an employee at United Parcel Service, a youth leader at his church and did not have a criminal record at the time of his death.
Because the matter involves pending litigation, a spokesman for Mayor Lyda Krewson said she would have no comment on the matter.
Jeff Roorda, the police union’s spokesman, said Saturday that he was unaware a lawsuit had been filed and was not in a position to comment. Attorney Jermaine Wooten, who filed the lawsuit, could not be reached via a message sent to his email at the Legal Solution Group.
