MONTGOMERY, Alabama — The mother of a 16-year-old boy shot by SWAT officers during an early morning raid in Alabama has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the officers involved and the city of Mobile, saying the teen “died out in the cold.” blood.”
Randall Adjessom, 16, was sleeping in his childhood home when SWAT officers used a battering ram to break down his front door shortly after 5:30 a.m. on Nov. 13, 2023, while it was still dark outside. Adjessom’s mother, aunt, grandmother and three sisters, two of whom were also minors, were also at the home. According to the complaint, the warrant was executed as part of an investigation into Adjessom’s brother on charges of possession and distribution of marijuana. The 16-year-old was not a suspect. His brother wasn’t there and didn’t live at home.
According to the complaint, the Mobile Police Department deployed SWAT officers because the narcotics unit was understaffed.
Adjessom came out of the bedroom with a gun pointed at police, but when he realized he was confronting law enforcement, he put his hands up and backed away, the complaint said, citing unsealed body camera footage.
The unnamed police officer fired four shots within 11 seconds of entering Adjessom’s home. The lawsuit claims police failed to provide adequate medical care to Adjessom, who did not arrive at an emergency room eight minutes away until 50 minutes after he was shot.
According to the complaint, Adjessom’s family was forced to stay in the living room for several hours before they were told an officer had shot Adjessom.
“Shouldn’t they be sheriffs? How many more young black boys like Randall must be buried by police brutality before MPD’s legendary culture of unchecked excessive force finally ends,” Adjessom’s mother, Akouvi Adjessom, said in a statement Monday.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Mobile, names the city and an unidentified police officer as defendants and seeks unspecified damages. Spokespeople for the city attorney and police department did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.
‘Knocking,’ which allows law enforcement officers to enter a home without announcing their presence, followed the police killing of Breonna Taylor in her home in Louisville, Kentucky, in March 2020, leading to mass protests against racial injustice. The warrant has been under investigation in recent years. Injustice in public safety.
In 2021, the Justice Department changed its policy to limit the use of no-knock warrants, requiring agents to obtain approval from federal prosecutors and supervising law enforcement agencies.
Attorneys for Adjessom’s mother, Elizabeth A. Bailey, Cynthia B. Morgan and Steven A. Medina, called his death “an undoubtedly predictable and preventable tragedy.”
Adjessom was one of four high-profile police killings in Mobile that sparked public outcry and eventually led to an investigation into the Mobile Police Department by former federal prosecutor Kenyen Brown at the request of Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson. The investigation concluded in May with a more than 100-page, partially redacted report based on interviews, a review of department policies and body camera footage.
The investigation into Adjessom’s killing found that the officers who shot him followed the city’s use of force because Adjessom was armed and threatening. The report did not specify whether Adjessom had his hands up and retreated when he was shot.
However, the investigation also found that the decision to execute the search warrant before dawn did not appropriately prioritize the “sanctity of life.”
Officers who conducted the raid had a “preconceived notion” that the residents of Adjessom’s home were dangerous, even though “there were no indications that any of the occupants had a history of violence and the subject’s only serious offense was for marijuana,” the report said. Yes.
The report also cited frequent misconduct among the city’s police officers.
“There are numerous unconstitutional actions, including beating a handcuffed suspect, repeatedly entering or attempting to enter a cell phone, denigrating a suspect who used deadly force during a press conference, and unlawful and unconstitutional detention without just cause,” Brown said. “There is action,” he said. .
The report ultimately did not recommend that the Justice Department investigate the police department and said local law enforcement agencies were willing to implement their own reforms. In March, an ordinance banning no-knock warrants failed to pass the Mobile City Council.
___
Safiyah Riddle is a member of the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
