The city of Columbus now faces a second wrongful death lawsuit in federal court related to the Ricky Ball shooting.
Ricky Martin, the father of Ricky Ball, filed a lawsuit Friday in the U.S. District Court of Northern Mississippi in Aberdeen against the city and several former and current police officers for the Oct. 16, 2015, shooting death of his son.
The civil suit seeks a jury trial with damages to be determined by the jury. It mirrors many of the allegations a suit the Ricky Ball estate filed for wrongful death in late September.
Martin’s suit names former Columbus Police Department officers Canyon Boykin, Garrett Mittan and Yolanda Young, current officer Johnny Branch, former Police Chief Tony Carleton, the city of Columbus and 10 unidentified police officers.
Boykin shot and killed Ball, 26, after Ball fled on foot from a traffic stop. He was a passenger in the vehicle being stopped.
Ball was shot twice, once in the upper body and once in the lower body, Lowndes County Coroner Greg Merchant said. Martin’s lawsuit alleges Boykin shot Ball in the back and that his son was unarmed.
The suit accuses the officers of failing to activate their body cameras, failing to honestly report the events surrounding the shooting, concealing and manufacturing obfuscating evidence and impeding the administration of justice in the case.
In doing so, the suit says, the officers engaged in racially discriminatory actions.
“The …Defendants denied the Decedent equal protection of the law because of his race or color,” the suit says.
Boykin, Branch and Young, who were in a patrol car together along with an unauthorized female civilian, failed to activate their body cameras until after the shooting occurred. The suit alleges a handgun CPD reported finding near Ball’s body belonged to Mittan, who was one of the first officers to arrive at the scene after the shooting.
CPD didn’t report finding the gun, a Taurus 9mm, until 12 days after the shooting. The gun was allegedly stolen from Mittan’s home on Aug. 5, 2015.
Boykin has been indicted for manslaughter in the criminal case. The city council fired him weeks after the incident for the body camera and unauthorized passenger violations, as well as for derogatory social media posts he made toward women, African Americans and disabled people following the shooting.
Both Young and Mittan later resigned from the force. Mittan is now a Starkville police officer.
Martin’s suit further alleges the city failed to properly train, supervise, fund or discipline CPD officers. It says the lack of oversight created conditions that culminated in Ball’s death.
“The city knew or should have known that all of the above referenced policies (or lack thereof) …, practices, and customs and the effect of creating an undisciplined, under-supervised and under-trained police force, including the individual Defendants, who were “unleashed’ on the public, including [on] the Decedent.”
The suit similarly blames Carleton for a lack of training and supervision for officers.
Martin is being represented by attorneys Mose Lee Sudduth of Vernon, Alabama, Jeffrey Navarro of Amory. On Monday, Sudduth told The Dispatch the lawsuit was the culmination of a roughly five-month independent investigation into what happened after the shooting.
Martin filed a notice of intent to sue the city in July.
“We looked into it pretty good before we started,” Sudduth said. “It’s obviously telling that one of the defendants was indicted for manslaughter. That backed up what we found in our own investigation.
“Of course, Mr. Martin isn’t not so much worried about money as getting some justice for his son, finding out what happened and letting a jury decide exactly what happened,” Sudduth added.
City attorney Jeff Turnage declined to comment to The Dispatch about the lawsuit.
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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