Cop who was fired for killing a man throwing rocks sues Phoenix

A year ago, the Phoenix Police Department did something it has rarely done — it fired a cop who shot and killed a civilian. Now that officer is suing the department over his dismissal, claiming his civil rights were violated.

Jesse Johnson was one of three Phoenix police officers involved in the killing of 34-year-old Ali Osman, a Somali refugee who was allegedly throwing rocks at them. Osman’s death generated outrage in Phoenix and led to a $5.5 million settlement from the city. Ultimately, then-interim police Chief Michael Sullivan canned Johnson for violating the department’s “sanctity of life” policy.

In a federal lawsuit filed April 18 — coincidentally, Sullivan’s last day on the job — Johnson argues that his firing was unconstitutional, arbitrary and a violation of his “due process rights.” He’s seeking damages for the effect on his reputation, lost income and the loss of his constitutional rights, as well as for “humiliation” and “emotional distress.”

One of Johnson’s attorneys, Michael Napier, did not return a request for comment on the lawsuit. Phoenix spokesperson Dan Wilson and Phoenix police spokesperson Donna Rossi both declined to comment.

Quacy Smith, who represented Osman’s family after the shooting, said in a statement to Phoenix New Times that Johnson “is entitled to due process.”

“He has an unequivocal right to challenge his termination,” Smith said. “The family will not comment further on his challenge, nor interfere with his right to do so. A court of competent jurisdiction will determine whether the City terminating him was lawful or not. We will await the ruling of the court.”

The shooting

Johnson was one of three officers involved in Osman’s 2022 killing, though he was the only one fired. In his lawsuit, he lays out the circumstances of the shooting — though his details sometimes diverge from what’s publicly known — and what he says was an unfair post-shooting review process.

Johnson and fellow officers Brennan Olachea and Jared Gibson encountered Osman on Sept. 24, 2022, when Osman threw two rocks at a patrol car that drove past him on 19th Avenue. One rock caused minor damage to car Gibson and Olachea were driving, leading them to stop and confer with Johnson. They then returned to their cars and drove.

"Let's get this motherfucker," Olachea told Gibson, according to body camera footage later released by Phoenix police.

"Yeah," Gibson responded.

The three officers then returned to the intersection where Osman was standing on a patch of gravel off 19th Avenue. Olachea and Gibson had a less-lethal shotgun in their patrol vehicle, and one officer had called for helicopter support. But when the three officers arrived where Osman was standing, the helicopter had not arrived and the officers did not use the less-lethal weapon.

In his lawsuit, Johnson says Osman “started pelting his patrol vehicle with large river rocks,” at least one of which “caused a five-centimeter puncture” in the hood. According to body-cam footage, he pulled up beside Osman and immediately left his patrol car with his gun drawn.

Osman threw a rock at Johnson, which apparently hit the officer's shin. in his suit, Johnson says Osman ignored his orders to stop throwing at him and “took an overhand throwing stance with a rock in his hand.” Within seconds, Johnson shot Osman three times. Olachea then exited the other car and also shot Osman. In his lawsuit, Johnson says he and Olachea “fear(ed) for their lives.”

Police said they recovered at least four rocks from the intersection. Though Johnson characterized Osman’s projectiles as “large river rocks,” police said rocks recovered from the scene weighed between 2.9 and 19.8 ounces. Though it is hard to tell from the body-cam footage, the rocks appeared roughly the size of a ping-pong ball.

Osman’s killing sparked outrage in Phoenix, especially in the city’s Somali community. At the time, family and friends told New Times that Osman struggled with mental health, wondering why the cops who shot him were so quick to resort to lethal force.

"He's someone who needed help," Muktar Sheikh, a community organizer with the Somali Association of Arizona, said at the time. "Instead, somehow, the Phoenix police decided to shoot him."

The review

Though the Phoenix City Council authorized a $5.5 million payout to Osman’s family in November 2023, it took 18 months for the department to issue any discipline for the officers involved. In his lawsuit, Johnson claims that process wasn’t fair.

When a cop kills someone in Phoenix, the shooting goes through a number of reviews from different agencies. All of them cleared Johnson, at least initially.

In May 2023, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office declined to press charges — and indeed, New Times could not find an example of current county attorney Rachel Mitchell ever prosecuting a Phoenix cop for killing someone on the job. Johnson also survived an internal investigation by Phoenix police and a review by the department's Critical Incident Review Board, which consists of senior police staff and civilians who are not publicly identified. Both found the shooting to be within department policy.

But Sullivan rejected that conclusion, firing Johnson on April 10, 2024, for violating the department’s “sanctity of life” policy, which at the time stated that the department “respects the dignity of all persons and recognizes the sanctity of human life, rights and liberty,” according to the lawsuit. Of the two other officers involved in the Osman shooting, only Olachea faced additional discipline. He was suspended for 24 hours.

“The decision was not made lightly but was done after careful consideration of all the facts,” agency spokesperson Sgt. Robert Scherer said of Johnson’s firing in a statement at the time. “The Phoenix Police Department must hold its employees to the highest standards, conduct and accountability.”

Johnson appealed the decision to the city’s Civilian Service Board, a fact that his lawsuit fails to mention. The board unanimously upheld Sullivan’s decision in November. A document from that meeting offers little in the way of explanation, simply noting that Johnson was “dismissed” for “just cause.” Wilson, the city spokesperson, declined to provide further explanation.

In his lawsuit, Johnson claims that no other officer has ever been disciplined for violating the “sanctity of life” policy and that the department “failed to provide adequate training or guidance” so that officers ‘could reasonably understand the expectations.” In addition, it claims the sanctity of life policy is “unconstitutional” because it is too vague and hard to understand for an “officer of ordinary intelligence.”

The suit also claims that his firing was “arbitrary” and that the department “did not investigate the trajectory of the shots” he and Olachea fired and “did not determine which single round struck Mr. Osman.” Body-cam video shows all four shots being fired in quick succession. At the time of Johnson’s firing, the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association told ABC15 that it was “unfair to hold one half of the interaction 100% responsible for the outcome."

Johnson's firing for conduct not in line with department policy was Phoenix police’s first since July 2021, Scherer told New Times at the time. The dismissed officer in that case was Jeff Cooke, who was involved in the killing of Ryan Whitaker in May 2020. Whitaker was shot in the back twice after answering police officers’ knock on his door with a gun in hand. Allister Adel, then the Maricopa County Attorney, didn’t charge either of the officers for Whitaker's killing.

Unlike Johnson, however, Cooke’s firing was reversed by the Civilian Service Board, which reinstated him in December 2021.