The lawsuit reveals new details about Osman's death and the Phoenix Police Department's response, including that officers waited two minutes after shooting Osman multiple times before providing any medical assistance.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of Osman's sister, Halima, and parents, Muktar Yarow and Hawal Nur Yusuf. The suit alleges negligence, wrongful death, and battery and seeks damages on behalf of Osman's family and estate. The family is represented by Quacy Smith, a prominent civil rights attorney in Phoenix who frequently handles police misconduct cases.
"To many citizens of Phoenix, Arizona, Mr. Osman's death is another disturbing example of the extreme indifference to human life continually demonstrated by the [Phoenix Police Department] and its officers," the lawsuit says.
A Phoenix police spokesperson said their office was closed Monday for a federal holiday and was unable to respond to questions about the lawsuit.
In October, Osman's family filed a notice of claim, the precursor to a lawsuit, against the city of Phoenix seeking $85 million over Osman's death.
‘Let's Get This Motherfucker’
Osman's death sparked an outpouring of grief and anger in Phoenix. Osman, 34, was a Somali refugee who found a new home with his family in Tucson and, later, in Phoenix. He struggled with mental health issues, friends and family have said. "He's someone who needed help," Muktar Sheikh, a community organizer who knew Osman, told Phoenix New Times in September.Phoenix police officers encountered Osman on the evening of September 24 when he threw two rocks at a patrol car that drove past him on 19th Avenue. One rock caused minor damage to the police vehicle. The officers in the car, Jared Gibson and Brennan Olachea, stopped and convened with another officer, Jesse Johnson, who was in a different vehicle.
"Let's get this motherfucker," Olachea told Gibson, according to body camera footage released by Phoenix police. "Yeah," Gibson said. 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 — which does not shoot live rounds — in their patrol vehicle, and one officer had called for helicopter support. Yet when the three officers arrived where Osman was standing, the helicopter hadn't arrived, and the officers did not use the less-lethal shotgun.
Instead, Johnson pulled up beside Osman and immediately left his patrol car with his gun drawn. Osman threw a small rock at Johnson, which hit the officer's shin. Within seconds of arriving, Johnson shot Osman three times. Olachea then exited the other car and also shot Osman.
According to the lawsuit, it took two more minutes for the officers to provide Osman any aid — something that was not clear from the limited bodycam video that Phoenix police provided after his death.
"Both officers repeatedly scream, 'Get down,' 'Stay down,' 'Show me your hands,' 'Show me your hands, now,' and 'Let me see both of your hands' for two entire minutes in the direction of Mr. Osman's dead body," the lawsuit says, basing its account on body camera footage that the Osman family's legal team reviewed.
‘Systemic Failure’
The lawsuit called the department's failure to disclose the two minutes of inaction — as well as statements by Olachea, Johnson, and Gibson made to investigators after the shooting — "severely misleading at best, and shamelessly dishonest at worst." Although the video released by Phoenix police in the wake of Osman's death included photos of several large rocks, attorneys for the family noted that there was no indication that Osman had thrown them. In fact, most of the rocks in the vicinity were far smaller one- or two-inch pieces of gravel.
The lawsuit also described Osman's death as a result of systemic, deep-seated issues in the police Department, which is facing a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into its policing practices, including its high number of fatal shootings. "It is unquestionable that there is a systemic failure within the city of Phoenix to train, supervise, and regulate the Phoenix Police Department and its agents," the lawsuit says.
In October, Phoenix police said it was conducting an internal investigation into the shooting. A spokesperson did not respond to New Times' questions about the ultimate outcome of the investigation.
None of the officers faced any discipline, or at least any consequences that were made public, according to the lawsuit. All three remain on the force, and two — Johnson and Olachea — have since been moved to the department's Violent Crimes Bureau, according to the lawsuit.
