8 Nov 28th-Dec 4th, 2024 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | with their orders to stop,” the body cam footage suggests McGinty understood and perhaps desired that outcome. Barefoot, he walked slowly toward the officers, twice raising both arms in the air as if to invite them to fire at him. The officers indeed opened fire, hitting McGinty in the face, chest and arms, according to the lawsuit. McGinty was pronounced dead at the scene. None of the officers used less-lethal weapons such as a Taser. After the shooting, a neighbor told police he “heard what sounded like a machine gun,” an officer noted in the police report. Seventeen shell casings were recovered. ‘Reckless indifference’ The suit claims that the four officers involved — identified in court filings only as Luna, Lawrence, Duran and Koudelka, though they are not named as defendants — failed to state their intention to use deadly force before they shot McGinty, for which the suit claims was “unreasonable and unnecessary.” “Thomas did not have fair warning and an opportunity to change his behavior to avoid being shot,” the lawsuit reads, adding that officers “abandoned any efforts to de-escalate the situation, and suddenly began to escalate the situation and create chaos by shouting at Thomas in a frantic manner.” The lawsuit accuses the officers of failing to de-escalate the situation and the city of Mesa of not properly training offi- cers and dispatchers. The city showed “reckless indifference to Thomas’s rights and safety by failing to dispatch crisis intervention officers,” the lawsuit says. On Nov. 15, Mesa filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the city “cannot be held liable for its employee’s intentional use of force unless it actually knows of the employee’s propensity to commit that particular act.” It also argued that the city can’t be sued for not dispatching a crisis intervention team. Encinas added that an internal investi- gation into the officers’ actions “determined that the force used was within policy, the officers acted in accordance with department policies, and/or proce- dures.” Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell agreed. Tom Van Dorn, the county attorney’s public safety liaison, said Mitchell concluded “that the officers did not commit any act that warrants criminal prosecution.” A judge has yet to rule on the city’s motion to dismiss. J. Scott Halverson, attorney for Holly McGinty, told New Times that no matter what becomes of the outcome of the wrongful death case, he also plans to file a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city within the next year. At least five lawsuits have been filed so far this year against the Mesa Police Department for excessive use of force or wrongful death. In June, the family of Shawn Gagne filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing a Mesa police SWAT team of opening fire en masse on Gagne while he allegedly was attempting to surrender. Two similar lawsuits were filed in March, one concerning the fatal shooting of a man who allegedly reached for a gun while officers were tasing him and another about a woman who was shot in the back by an officer while she seeking help from him during a mental health crisis. That lawsuit, filed on behalf of Tanesha Carter, notes that the depart- ment has an “established history of exces- sive force incidents,” many of which involved individuals experiencing behav- ioral health crises. It also claimed that 13 excessive force incidents occurred between 2016 and 2023, including six in which the city paid out anywhere between $175,000 and $8 million to victims and their families. In the first six months of 2022, Mesa settled 10 excessive force, assault and wrongful death claims for more than $5.4 million. It also settled to give another $10 million to the widow and parents of Daniel Shaver, an unarmed man shot and killed by police in a hotel hallway in 2016. Suicide by Cop from p 7 An internal Mesa police investigation ruled that the officers who shot Thomas McGinty “determined that the force used was within policy.”(Photo by Elias Weiss)
