Mother sues West Palm cop honored by Biden for actions

WEST PALM BEACH — A West Palm Beach police offifficer who was honored for heroism this year by Vice President Joe Biden for fatally shooting a 24-year-old man investigators claimed was armed with an AK-47 has been sued by the mother of the victim, who claims her son wasn’t a threat to anybody.

Deborah Polen claims Offifficer Christopher Nebbeling had no reason to shoot her son, Dimetri Deion Polen, two years ago Monday.

“At no time did the decedent, Mr. Polen, engage in conduct that would have justifified (Nebbeling’s) use of unreasonable and deadly force against him,” attorney Edwin Ferguson wrote in the federal lawsuit he fifiled Monday on behalf of Polen’s mother.

After the shooting, West Palm Beach police claimed Nebbeling fifired 12 times after Polen pulled an AK-47 assault riflfle on him near Howard Park, just south of downtown West Palm Beach.

Then-Police Chief Vince Demasi brought an identical gun to a press conference after the October 2013 shooting and declared: “There’s no doubt in my mind that in this particular case the offifficer feared for his life. This is a military weapon. It’s designed for one thing, and that’s to kill people.”

In the lawsuit fifiled in U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach, Ferguson makes no mention of the assault riflfle. Instead, he claims Nebbeling pursued an SUV that Polen was driving south on Tamarind Avenue. The chase ended when Polen’s vehicle crashed into a tree in the median on Parker Avenue alongside Howard Park.

“While Mr. Polen was near the rear of the wrecked vehicle, Offifficer Nebbeling shot and killed him,” Ferguson wrote.

He is seeking an unspecifified amount in damages for Deborah Polen, claiming Nebbeling and the city violated her son’s civil rights. He also claims the city failed to adequately train Nebbeling and has a “policy and/ or custom and practice” of failing to discipline offifficers who unnecessarily use deadly force.

Deborah Polen has long questioned the police version of the incident. She said offifficers gave conflflicting stories about the death of her son, whom she described as a “people-loving person and a family person who never did anything to anybody.”

Based on the police statements about the shooting, Nebbeling was honored in May at a TOP COPS awards dinner in Washington, D.C. “You brought the heroism that earned you a Bronze Star in Afghanistan home to stop a mass shooting in (West) Palm Beach,” Biden said.

Nebbeling, a West Palm Beach offifficer since 2008, served in the U.S. Army in Iraq and Afghanistan.