The family of a 19-year-old student killed by a Connecticut state trooper is demanding justice and is planning to seek $10 million in a wrongful death lawsuit.
According to the Associated Press, lawyers representing the family of Mubarak Soulemane have already filed a notice of their intent to see the town of West Haven and its local police for an undisclosed sum.
The lawyers have also reached out to the state claims commissioner, seeking permission to sue the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection and state police officials for $10 million.
“I want justice. I want justice,” Soulemane’s mother, Omo Mohammed, said in an interview Thursday, according to the report. “I want this policeman to go to jail for killing my son.”
The family is also asking the state to convene a grand jury to investigate the fatal shooting.
Soulemane was killed on Jan 15. Police say that the community college student carjacked a vehicle, and led troopers on a car chase along Insterstate 95 into West Haven, where local police responded to the scene as well.
The teen reportedly hit two state police cruisers and a civilian vehicle, before he was boxed in by troopers.
Video from the shooting shows a West Haven officer beaking the passenger side window of the stolen vehicle before a trooper tases Souleman, which apparently had no effect.
The teen brandished a knife, which was when Brian North fired seven shots through the driver’s side window, killing Soulemane.
North has since been placed on desk duty pending an investigation.
His family said that the 19-year-old grappled with schizophrenia and lawyers have argued that Soulemane was not an immediate threat.
“Clearly … the video shows the police officer was in no imminent danger … when he fired seven shots rapidly into the car,” Sanford Rubenstein, one of the attorneys representing Soulemane’s family told the wire. “More important than money damages is that this police officer be held accountable for his actions.”