Petal Mayor Hal Marx said the city plans to file a response in opposition to a wrongful death complaint filed by the family of a man who was allegedly fatally shot by a Petal police officer.
“We expected this, because it usually happens in a situation like this, where there’s some kind of civil suit filed,” Marx said. “We’ll let our attorney file our response.”
The complaint was filed in federal court June 1 by Yoshanta Albert, the wife of Marc Davis. Davis, a native of Laplace, Louisiana, was allegedly shot by a Petal Police Department officer on the morning of June 2, 2017, after police responded to a two-vehicle accident near the intersection of Mississippi 42 and Leeville Road in Petal.
The officer, who has never been named, shot Davis several times after Davis allegedly provoked an altercation with police. Davis died later of his injuries at Forrest General Hospital.
The complaint names as defendants the City of Petal, Police Chief Leonard Fuller and the unnamed officer and cites “use of excessive force, intentional infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment, battery and assault” against Davis. The complaint also alleges the officer unexpectedly and without warning shot Davis, who was unarmed.
“After being shot, Marc Davis was immobile and in obvious and critical need of emergency medical care and treatment,” the complaint states. “Defendants did not timely summon medical care or permit medical personnel to treat Marc Davis.
“The delay of medical care to Marc Davis caused Marc Davis extreme physical and emotional pain and suffering and was a contributing cause of his serious injuries. The Defendants had no cause, let alone probable cause or reasonable suspicion to arrest, charge and detain the plaintiffs. Their actions were based on malice and bad faith.”
Marx said the initial incident was investigated by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, and the officer was cleared of any wrongdoing.
“We feel confident that he acted appropriately, and that’s really all we can say right now,” he said. “It’s just important for people to remember when they read some of these quotes that are coming out of this lawsuit – the other side always puts their version of what they want the court to think happened.
“And that’s not an official version of what happened – that’s a lawyer’s version – and I think the facts are totally opposite of what they alleged. So we’ll just let our attorney file the response. We’re just thankful that our officer is okay and he’s cleared of any kind of wrongdoing.”
City attorney Rocky Eaton will be representing Petal in the matter.
“Our insurance company is in charge of defending us on something like this, and then they hire our counsel to represent us, so they hired Rocky Eaton,” Marx said. “So I’m happy that Rocky will be the one to represent us, because he knows the circumstances very well and he’ll do a great job.”
