The family of John Crawford, a man who was shot and killed by police in Walmart after he was looking at a BB gun for sale, is filing a federal lawsuit claiming that the store and police force are responsible for Crawford's wrongful death, CNN reported on Tuesday.
Crawford, 22, was black, and his family's lawyers brought up Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and Eric Garner - other black males who have been killed recently by police - as they announced the legal action. The officers involved in the other cases were not indicted by grand juries, just as a grand jury refused to indict the officer involved in Crawford's death in Ohio.
Crawford was shopping at a Walmart on Aug. 5 and picked up a BB gun that had been sitting on a shelf out of its packaging for the past few days. Crawford was seen on video surveillance walking around the store casually while talking on the phone and holding the BB gun, prompting people in the store to call 911. When Beavercreek police arrived at the scene, they shot him in the torso.
His death, along with other shooting deaths of black men and boys at the hands of white police officers, has caused an international firestorm of people demanding that the officers involved be held accountable.
The family I asking for $75,000 in restitution in the suit.
"This is just the beginning as far as I'm concerned," said his dad, John Crawford Jr., on Tuesday, according to NBC affiliate WDTN in Dayton. "I'm still pursuing justice, because to me ... you have to be held accountable."
