Terrebonne sheriff and deputies sued over shooting of teen
September 22, 2015
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September 23, 2015
See the entire lawsuit by clicking here
The lawsuit filed against Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Jerry Larpenter and two deputies, arising from the Sept. 13, 2014 shooting death of 14-year-old Cameron Tillman, contains allegations that sharply contrast with the official version of the incident, and strongly-worded accusations against the deputies and the sheriff himself.
The 18-page filing alleges that Tillman was empty-handed when he answered a knock at the door of an abandoned house at 51 Kirkglen Loop in Houma, and that the deputies who were there did not identify themselves as such.
Larpenter said he has not yet read the suit, and therefore can’t say much about it right now.
“The independent investigations done by the State Police and the Grand Jury speak for themselves,” Larpenter said.
Tillman was, according to a state police report following their investigation of the shooting, in an abandoned house at 51 Kirkglen Loop in the Village East subdivision with his brother and other teens when deputies Preston Norman and Andrew Lewis arrived. They had answered a complaint, records showed, of young men with guns on Kirkglen Loop entering the abandoned house.
The State Police report says Norman told investigators he identified himself as a police officer when he knocked on a door within a carport leading into the house, and that Cameron Tillman opened the door and stepped onto its threshold with what appeared to be a pistol in his hand, then swung it toward the direction of the deputy, whereupon the deputy fired.
Lewis, the State Police report says, was in the carport entryway backing up Norman.
A Terrebonne Parish grand jury found that no crime had been committed, and appeared to accept the findings in the State Police report after viewing evidence and hearing from witnesses.
The lawsuit, filed Monday by Monroe attorney Carol Powell Lexing, contradicts key elements of the report.
“The teenagers hung out at the house so that they could pick up wi-fi to engage on Facebook, listen to music and to simply stay off the streets,” the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in New Orleans states. “The teenagers sat around a table talking and listening to music with their toy airsoft BB Gun lying on the table. After being there for about twenty to thirty minutes, they heard three knocks at the side entrance door under the open garage. The person knocking on the door did not announce himself … There was no announcement or identification by the Terrebonne deputies at all of their presence.”
Hearing the knock Cameron “emptied handed” went to open the door, the court papers continue, while one of the other teens, identified by the initials HW, got behind the door.
“As soon as Cameron opened the door to look out several consecutive shots were fired by the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s deputy striking Cameron. HW then immediately pushed the door closed with shots still being fired through the door by the deputy to the extent that shots caused the door to reopen. Cameron did not have a gun in his hands when he opened the door. Cameron staggered backwards while holding his abdomen area with his right hand fell on his back to the floor in the kitchen area of the house,” the lawsuit states. “While Cameron still alive squirmed on the floor bleeding to death two officers stood at the doorway and shouted grave words of profanity instructing the other teenagers to get on the floor. “
Cameron Tillman’s brother, Andre, whose nickname is “Snip,” was thwarted from aiding him, the suit alleges.
“As Cameron suffered in excruciating pain tossing and turning on the floor he told his brother “Snip he shot me,” the lawsuit reads. “Cameron’s brother Andre made an attempt to assist his dying baby brother but was profanely instructed by the deputies to not move. Only a few feet away from Cameron was his brother and friends who remained helpless and traumatized by the shooting. Subsequently, Cameron succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds to his torso and abdomen with one perforating wound to the top right shoulder- and died. “
The remaining teenagers, the suit alleges, were held at gunpoint by the officers then removed from the house and placed on their stomachs inside the garage.
“Then the teenagers were transported to the sheriff department in which they were held for four to five hours without their parents, and being able to speak with their parents, leaving the teenagers traumatized,” the suit reads.
It is the practice of the Sheriff’s Office, the suit alleges, to subject people “to unreasonable uses of seizure and force against their persons.”
Larpenter, the suit goes on to allege, selects and retains employees “with demonstrable propensities for excessive force, violence, negligence and other misconduct” and condones and encourages officers “in the belief that they can violate the rights of persons such as the decedent and the other teenagers in this action with impunity, and that such conduct will not adversely affect their opportunities for promotion and other employment benefits.”
It also alleges that officers are poorly trained.
The suit seeks punitive damages of an unstated amount. Compensation for psychological damage done to Andre Tillman and the three teens whose parents are named in the suit is also sought.
Additional unspecified damages are sought for alleged violations of Constitutional rights that the suit says “were willful, oppressive, shocking to the conscience of ordinary citizens, fraudulent, and malicious, thus warranting the award of punitive damages against each individual defendant in an amount adequate to punish the wrongdoers and deter future misconduct.”
