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Aderrien Murry Family Files $5 Million Lawsuit After Indianola Officer Shot 11-Year-Old

Aderrien Murry and Carlos Moore posing on a front porch
An Indianola Police officer shot 11-year-old Aderrien Murry, left, on May 20, 2023, after he called 911 to report a domestic disturbance. On May 30, 2023, the family’s attorney Carlos Moore, right, announced a $5 million lawsuit against the City of Indianola, the police chief and the officer involved in the shooting. Photo courtesy Carlos Moore

As 11-year-old Aderrien Murry collapsed into his mother’s arms moments after an Indianola Police officer shot him in the chest at their home during the early morning hours of May 20, he asked his mother to tell teachers and family members he was “sorry.”

He “actually thought he was about to die” and “wanted to seek forgiveness before he met his maker,” his family’s attorney Carlos Moore said as he recited the story at a press conference in Grenada, Miss., on Tuesday. The boy, who is recovering after spending five days at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, appeared at the press conference with his mother Nakala Murry.

Moore announced Tuesday that the family had filed a $5 million lawsuit against the City of Indianola, Indianola Police Chief Ronald Sampson and Officer Greg Capers. The lawsuit identifies Capers, 61, as the officer who shot Aderrien Murry.

“My client, Aderrien Murry, did everything right,” Moore said at the press conference. “And yet he was still shot point blank, center range, in the chest.” The complaint alleges that Capers “failed to assess the situation before displaying and/or discharging his firearm.”

“(Aderrien) had called the police to come to his mother’s rescue,” Moore continued. “Her ex-boyfriend was in the house, he had heard his mother crying. She had slipped the cell phone to him and asked him to call the police and his grandmother. He did just that. A brave and courageous young man tried to come to the rescue of his mother. Little did he know that, just a few moments later, he would be fighting for his life.”

Moore said that, when Nakala Murry opened the door, she told the police officers that her ex-boyfriend “was running out of the back of the house and did not have a gun.”

“Then (the officer) sticks his head in the door and says, ‘If there is anyone else in the house, come on out with your hands up.’ Being obedient, Aderrien Murry heard the command and came out with his hands up,” Moore said. “And seconds later after leaving his room and turning a corner into the living room, he was shot in the chest by Greg Capers. It’s the most egregious case of excessive force I’ve witnessed or heard in my 21 years in law practice. This young child who was simply trying to help his mother almost lost his life.”

The lawyer added that he believes “there’s no way a 4-foot-10 young man could be mistaken for a 6-foot-2 grown man.”

The Indianola Board of Alderman voted to place Capers on paid administrative leave on May 22. He has not been charged in the boy’s shooting, however, and remains an employee of the Indianola Police Department.

At the press conference, Moore called for the City to fire both Sampson and Capers.

“We are demanding a criminal prosecution by the state attorney general for aggravated assault,” he said. “The statute says if you recklessly injure someone with a gun, that is aggravated assault. It doesn’t have to be intentional. We give Greg Capers the benefit of the doubt that it was not intentional, but it was definitely grossly, grossly reckless.”

The complaint, which Moore filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi’s Greenville Division, accuses the defendants of violating Aderrien Murry’s 4th Amendment “right to be free from excessive force” and his 14th Amendment “right to substantive due process without intentional exposure to known danger.” The complaint also accuses the defendants of excessive force; infliction of emotional distress; reckless endangerment; and civil assault and battery.

The document takes direct aim at the City of Indianola and Sampson, accusing them of “negligent and wanton failure in hiring and to monitor, train, supervise, and discipline or take necessary corrective action on the officer involved.”

An employee at the Indianola Police Department told the Mississippi Free Press on Tuesday that they had “no comment” and that the shooting was “still under investigation by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.”

You can read the Murrys’ lawsuit here.

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