ATLANTA — A former mayor of Atlanta and police chief were named in a lawsuit concerning the deadly shooting of an eight-year-old in 2020.
Fulton County court records show the lawsuit was filed by the family friend Omar Ivery, who was driving in Atlanta when eight-year-old Secoriea Turner was killed.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
The lawsuit names former Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and former police Chief Rodney Bryant, city councilmember Joyce Sheperd and the owner of the Wendy’s.
The lawsuit alleges that all the defendants failed to keep the area safe despite the ongoing violence.
TRENDING STORIES:
- Quavo shouts out nephew Takeoff on the field of Georgia’s championship celebration
- Diabetes drug set to be approved for weight loss could become best-selling drug in history
- Teen killed in attempted robbery moments after walking out of DeKalb gas station, mother says
The lawsuit, first obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, states, “But for defendants’ lack of intervening to control or dismantle the nuisance of an armed barricade that obstructed the roads and the violence that surrounded it, Mr. Ivery would not have been injured and Secoriea would still have her life today.”
Following the deadly shooting of Turner, Ivey said in the lawsuit that “the defendants did nothing to end the lawlessness” on University Avenue weeks after Rayshard Brooks was killed outside a Wendy’s by Atlanta police officers.
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
“During the height of public unrest, Mayor Bottoms, Interim Chief Bryant, Councilmember Sheperd, and the city neglected their duty to protect the safety of the public and allowed lawlessness, vigilantism, and violence to erode and disrupt the area surrounding the Wendy’s at 125 University Avenue,” according to the lawsuit.
Ivery requested a jury trial and unspecified damages in the suit due to both physical and emotional injuries he suffered following the shooting.
A previous lawsuit filed by Ivery was a “dismissal without prejudice” in 2021, according to court records.
IN OTHER NEWS:
©2022 Cox Media Group
