Mom of man shot dead by police in 2022 files lawsuit against Metro
The mother of a 19-year-old man shot and killed by Las Vegas police officers in 2022 has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Metropolitan Police Department.
Latia Alexander, whose son Isaiah T. Williams was shot and killed on Jan. 10, 2022, filed the civil rights and wrongful death lawsuit against Metro on Tuesday, according to a news release from Breeden & Associates, the law firm representing Alexander. The release said that neither Alexander nor her legal counsel would be commenting.
Federal court records show that a complaint filed by Alexander’s Las Vegas attorney, Adam J. Breeden, alleges that the lawsuit is the “tragic result of LVMPD and its officers failing to reasonably execute a search and seizure and abide by the knock-and-announce rule.
“These failures led to an explosively dangerous and completely unnecessary situation which resulted in the death of an innocent, 19-year-old Black man,” the complaint alleges.
The lawsuit lists Metro as a defendant, as well as six officers involved in the incident. The lawsuit seeks at least $1 million for damages that include emotional distress.
According to a 2023 fact-finding review of the shooting, police body-camera footage showed officers yelling, “Police department, search warrant” at least seven times before breaking down the door of an apartment at 3050 S. Nellis Blvd. The officers were looking for evidence in a homicide that had happened two months earlier.
The suspected killer wasn’t home, and Williams and another man who was in the apartment were not involved in the killing, Metro Detective Scott Mendoza said during the fact-finding review.
The officers faced immediate gunfire from Williams, who fired 18 rounds at several Metro officers. Williams was shot 17 times.
Alexander’s lawsuit said she believes the officers lacked a so-called “no-knock warrant,” or a warrant that would allow them to enter without knocking, and that the plaintiff has been unable to “locate any search or arrest warrant of any kind in force on the day in question,” the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit also says that under the U.S. Constitution, as well as federal and state law, officers who are not serving a no-knock warrant must knock and announce their presence and then wait a reasonable time to determine if the officers will be refused entry before they would need to use force to enter a dwelling.
“Officers began ramming the front door just 10 seconds after announcing their presence, an amount of time that is completely unreasonable to rouse someone from their sleep and give them a reasonable opportunity to ascertain who was at the door and to respond to the officers’ request for admittance,” the lawsuit alleges.
“In the dangerous confusion caused by the officers’ failure to abide by the Fourth Amendment, Mr. Williams apparently mistook the officers for intruders and fired on officers to defend himself from a perceived home invasion, causing officers to return fire and fatally shoot him,” the release from Breeden said.
A Metro spokesperson declined to comment Wednesday.
“The LVMPD does not comment on pending litigation,” the spokesperson said in an email.
Contact Brett Clarkson at bclarkson@reviewjournal.com.
