A witness to a police officer’s fatal shooting of Michael Brown last summer in Ferguson, Missouri, has filed a lawsuit alleging that he was wrongly stopped and fired on during the encounter on a city street. The lawsuit, filed last week by Dorian Johnson, claims that the officer, Darren Wilson, fired at him and Brown as they ran away from him on Aug. 9. The lawsuit claims Wilson targeted him without probable cause.
“Officer Wilson acted with either deliberate indifference and/or reckless disregard toward” Johnson, the lawsuit says. The suit also cited many of the Department of Justice findings, arguing that the city and former Police Chief Thomas Jackson “facilitated, encouraged and/or instigated” biased police behavior, including the “excessive force” used against Brown and Johnson.
