The family of a Black man fatally shot by Memphis police last year filed a wrongful death lawsuit Wednesday, alleging his civil rights were violated during the encounter.
Memphis Police Officer Nahume Dorme shot Jaylin McKenzie, 20, during a traffic stop on the night of Dec. 16, 2022. McKenzie, who lived in Atlanta, was in Memphis visiting family.
Dorme shot McKenzie five times, but McKenzie did not die immediately. Officers on the scene ignored McKenzie “moaning for help” as he lay on the ground, according to the lawsuit.
Officers showed “no signs” of conducting a typical traffic stop, according to the lawsuit, which says that police commanded McKenzie to show his hands when he left the vehicle and that Officer Christopher Jackson twice asked him, “Do you want to get shot?”
McKenzie took off on foot, with Jackson and Dorme following. Jackson fell to the ground before Dorme fired nine shots, striking McKenzie five times. At least four officers were at the scene. In police body-camera footage, one can be heard saying “fuck” and “fuck me” before paramedics, whom police had called to the scene, pronounced McKenzie dead, the lawsuit says.
Dorme did not turn on his body camera during the encounter, which violated department policy, HuffPost previously reported. Body-cam footage from Jackson includes audio of the encounter and shows the chase on foot prior to the shooting.
In September, the Shelby County district attorney announced that no criminal charges would be filed against Dorme or the other officers at the scene.
Ashley McKenzie-Smith, McKenzie’s mother, told HuffPost she was “very disappointed, hurt, even mad” after “seeing the redacted video footage of [Jaylin] being chased and gunned down.”
The lawsuit specifically names Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis, and details Davis’ history with the Atlanta Police Department. It particularly focuses on her leadership of the controversial Red Dog Unit in Atlanta, which the suit says would “regularly present false information to obtain warrants and cut corners to make more time for lucrative side jobs.” The unit was disbanded in 2011.
“In 2006, just months into Chief Cerelyn Davis’ as a Commander in the Red Dog Unit, three narcotic officers shot and killed a 92-year-old woman in a drug raid gone wrong,” the lawsuit says.
That woman was Kathryn Johnson, who was shot five times in her home during a botched drug raid. Undercover officers initiated a no-knock warrant and fired a total of 39 shots. Three of the officers involved were sentenced to five to 10 years in prison.
Davis was sharply criticized again after establishing a special police unit in Memphis that was supposed to address street crime but frequently conducted traffic stops targeting Black people in the city.
The five officers involved in the Jan. 7 fatal beating of Tyre Nichols were all members of the unit. Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, was beaten, pepper-sprayed and shocked by several officers after a traffic stop and died three days later. The unit was disbanded after Nichols’ death.