17-year-old Riley Doggett and 25-year-old Samuel Sterling were both unarmed and fleeing from police in the Grand Rapids area when they were hit by patrol vehicles in April 2024.
In the excessive force lawsuits, the families allege the officers' actions were reckless and unjustified.
Family attorney Ven Johnson pointed to dashcam and body camera footage he says show the vehicles being used as deadly weapons.
“The officer has said apparently that he wasn’t trying to hit Riley. He was trying to get in front of him and block his path - the exact same lie by the way that is being perpetrated by Keeley in the Sterling case that we’ll show you next.”
The civil lawsuits are filed against Kent County, Kent County Sheriff’s Deputy Josiah McMains and former Michigan State Police Detective Sergeant Brian Keely.
Keely has been criminally charged; McMains has not.
Riley Doggett’s mother Becky Wilbert is also asking Michigan’s Attorney General to charge McMains after local prosecutors declined to do so.
“I can’t bring my son back. No one can bring my son back but for him to be charged would be a piece of justice for us.”
The lawsuits filed in both federal and state courts include claims of ‘systemic law enforcement failures.’
Co-counsel Ben Crump says the cases are about more than justice for the two families.
“These two cases stands as hallmarks to whether or not in America, we’re going to have a nation of laws or just knee-jerk reaction of political impulses that make all of us in jeopardy.”
