Family of Mississippi boy, 11, shot in the chest by cops after calling 911 files $5 MILLION suit
The family of an 11-year-old boy who was shot in the chest by Mississippi police after calling them to his home for help is suing the city and officers for $5 million.
Aderrien Murry was awakened at around 4am on May 20 by the sound of his mother’s ex-boyfriend acting menacingly, so she asked him to call the police.
When officers from the Indianola Police Department arrived moments later, Aderrien said he was asked to leave his room.
When he did, he was shot and was lucky to survive.
Aderrien suffered a collapsed lung, broken ribs and a ruptured liver from the shooting and was placed on a ventilator at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. He spent five days in the hospital.
On Tuesday, the Murry family filed a lawsuit against the city of Indianola; the police chief, Brian Sher; and the officer who shot Aderrien, Greg Capers, 61.
Aderrien Murry, 11, called 911 and his grandmother at 4 a.m. on May 20, when his mother’s ex-boyfriend came to the house and the family felt threatened
Mississippi Police Officer Greg Capers (left), accused of shooting an 11-year-old boy in the chest after calling 911 for help, has been suspended without pay. Capers is being sued by the boy’s family, along with the city of Indianola and the police chief, Brian Sher (right)
Capers, named Indianola’s best officer in 2021, has been suspended pending an investigation.
Carlos Moore, the family’s attorney, said Sher and Capers should be fired.
They also want the body camera video of the shooting to be released to the public.
“It’s the most egregious case of excessive force I’ve seen or heard in my 21-year law practice,” Moore said.
“City of Indianola, we are coming after you and you are going to pay them.”
Mississippi Bureau of Investigation has announced it is investigating the shooting — a routine procedure for all shootings involving officers.
Bailey Martin, a spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, said last week that the department would not comment on the ongoing investigation and that MBI agents will share their findings with the attorney general’s office.
Aderrien told Good Morning America that he felt “a big blow” when he was shot.
He said he started singing gospel songs to support himself as he staggered to the door.
“I’ve come out with this,” he said with his arms raised during an interview with ABC news.
“It felt like a taser, like a big blow to the chest.
“I was bleeding, bleeding from my mouth.
“Then I just remembered I was singing a song.”
Aderrien Murry, 11, described the moment he was shot in the chest by Mississippi police after calling 911 during an interview with ABC News
Aderrien said the bullet “felt like a taser, like a big blow to the chest” and said he thought he was going to die
Aderrien Murry was awakened at around 4am on May 20 by the sound of his mother’s ex-boyfriend behaving menacingly outside the house (pictured), so he was asked to call the police
When asked what song he was singing, Aderrien said, “No weapon formed against me shall prosper” – referring to the Bible verse, Isaiah 54:17, “No weapon formed against you shall prosper.”
His mother, Nakala Murry, has called for Capers to be sued and fired.
She described how she gave her son the phone and asked him to call his grandmother, after she woke up, heard a knock on the window and saw her ex-boyfriend standing outside.
“I noticed he was a little furious. And from dealing with him in the past, I know the angry version of him, where it could lead,” she told Good Morning America.
Aderrien called 911 and his grandmother, who also called 911.
Nakala claimed that when the officer arrived, he “had his gun drawn at the front door and asked the people in the house to come out.”
She added, “Once he was like, come out with your hands up, that’s when my son came out.”
She also spoke of the moment when she put her hand over her son’s wound to apply pressure as he “sang gospel songs and prayed as he bled to death.”
“He was like, ‘I don’t want to die’ — that’s what he said,” she said.
“I said, ‘You’re not dying, baby, you’re not dying, just keep talking’.”
She said earlier that the officer who fired the gun also tried to help by placing his hand on hers to try and stop Aderrien’s bleeding.
The family has hired a lawyer, Carlos Moore (pictured), to help them file a case against the city
Moore told CNN“We believe that the city and the officer should be liable to Aderrien Murray for the damage they have caused.”
The attorney’s request for body camera footage of the incident to be released was denied due to “an ongoing investigation” by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.
But Moore said he was told there is video of the shooting taken from a nearby gas station.
The MBI issued a statement after the shooting saying it is “currently reviewing this critical incident and gathering evidence” and would hand over its findings to the Attorney General’s office upon completion of the investigation .