Judge dismisses $150M lawsuit filed by family of Vincent Truitt, killed by Cobb police in 2020
Sep. 3—A federal judge has dismissed a $150 million lawsuit filed in January by the family of Vincent Truitt, the 17-year-old killed by a Cobb police officer in July 2020.
Truitt's family sued Cobb County and the officer who killed him, alleging wrongful death and civil rights violations in the high-profile police shooting. The suit sought $50 million in damages each for Truitt's mother, father and estate.
Judge J.P. Boulee, however, sided with the county in finding that Cobb County Officer Max Karneol's shooting of Truitt was both justified and covered by the doctrine of "qualified immunity," which protects government officials from litigation in the course of their duties.
Gerald Griggs, the family's attorney, told the MDJ he still believes the shooting was unjustified and that he was evaluating next steps. Those could include appealing Boulee's decision, or re-filing the suit in Cobb County State Court.
Truitt, an Atlanta resident, was shot during a police chase of the stolen car he was riding in. Officers attempted a traffic stop of the car in the area of Riverside Parkway in south Cobb, but the car fled.
The car — which contained Truitt and two others — led police on a high-speed chase down Riverside Parkway, with officers attempting multiple pit maneuvers. The car eventually came to a stop behind a warehouse, where Truitt fled on foot.
An initial inquiry by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation found Truitt "brandished" a handgun, at which point Karneol shot him twice from behind. Truitt later died at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.
The incident, coming on the heels of the Black Lives Matter protests of May and June 2020, sparked a firestorm in Cobb. Truitt's family called on county leaders to file charges against Karneol, fire Cobb Police Chief Tim Cox and release video captured by the body cameras of officers who were present when Truitt was shot.
District Attorney Flynn Broady's predecessor, Joyette Holmes, shared the video with Truitt's family in November 2020. The family's attorneys had long maintained the video would prove Truitt never brandished a weapon and that the officer had no reason to fear for his life or shoot the teenager.
But Broady and Holmes resisted calls to release the video, citing an exemption to the state's open records laws that allows the government to withhold information pertinent to a pending investigation.
The video was ultimately made public when a Cobb grand jury found the use of force by the officer who shot Truitt to be justified. Broady, who said it would be his policy to follow a grand jury's recommendation in any officer-involved shootings, affirmed he would not press charges.
In February 2021, Broady said he considered the case closed. Jackie Patterson, an attorney for the family, said at the time they had been "hoodwinked" by Broady, arguing he had failed to present the case as a criminal matter.
Judge Boulee relied primarily on the evidence of the body camera footage in his decision. The video, Boulee writes, shows a "black object" in Truitt's right hand while running away, and then a handgun on the ground beside him after he was shot.
While Truitt did not point the handgun at Karneol, and Karneol did not issue a warning before shooting Truitt, Boulee found the threat posed by Truitt sufficient for the use of deadly force.
"Plaintiffs contend that (Truitt) did not pose a serious threat to Officer Karneol or others," Boulee wrote. "The Court disagrees. Here, (Truitt) was carrying a weapon in his hand while fleeing the police. (Truitt) had also been a participant in a high-speed car chase. These facts show that (Truitt) would have appeared to a reasonable police officer to be gravely dangerous."
Boulee went on to find the shooting "objectively reasonable," and dismissed both the federal and state court claims filed by the family.
