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The family of a man who was shot and killed by a Metro Nashville Police Department officer while having an “emotional crisis” in October 2023 filed a wrongful death lawsuit on Friday against the officers involved and Metro.
When Elizabeth Trujillo called 911 on Oct. 9, 2023, her son Joshua Kersey was having an “emotional crisis due to his severe mental problems.” When six MNPD officers showed up, one of them shot him.
“Officer Cole Ranseen, had no justifiable reason to start shooting the Plaintiff who was in a compliant position laying on the floor with his hand exposed with no object in his hands that could have been mistaken for a knife; therefore, posing no threat to the Defendants or anyone else at the scene,” reads the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
The complaint alleges that any “reasonable police officers” would have understood that Kersey was not a threat and needed help from mental health professionals. Instead, upon arriving at the house, the officers went upstairs, kicked down the door of Kersey’s bedroom and shot him.
The suit references the Supreme Court case Graham v. Connor, which set a standard for evaluating Fourth Amendment claims of excessive police force. In that decision, the court determined that situations must be assessed from the perspective of a “reasonable officer” on the scene, understanding that officers must make “split-second judgments” in a “tense, uncertain and rapidly evolving situation.”
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Although the officers say they heard Kersey say that if anyone entered his room, he would cut his roommate’s throat, Trujillo contends that upon entering the room, any “reasonable officer” would have seen Kersey lying on the floor with his hands out to his sides, without a knife, and would have taken the opportunity to intervene in a way to prevent or mitigate any injury to Kersey.
The suit names the six officers, along with Metro, for failure to train and discipline the officers.
“By engaging in the acts of excessive force against Mr. Kersey that resulted in injuries to his person, Defendant Officer Ranseen and the Bystander Officers acted with impunity because of Defendant’s policy, practice or custom in failing to discipline its officers for the use of excessive force,” reads the suit.
