Mom sues city, cops over fatal shooting
The mother of a schizophrenic man fatally shot by a Hub officer in 2016 has filed a federal civil rights suit, saying police and emergency medical technicians were inadequately trained to deal with people with mental health disabilities.
Hope Coleman, mother of Terrence J. Coleman, 31, sued claiming her son’s constitutional rights — under the Fourth, Fifth and 14th amendments — were violated as well as his rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act when a Boston police officer fatally shot him on Oct. 30, 2016, the lawsuit says.
Hope Coleman is represented by Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice and the law firm,Fick & Marx LLP.
The lawsuit says Coleman called for an ambulance to take her son to the hospital for medical attention. Although Coleman told the 911 operator that she did not need or want any police involvement, Boston police responded. Authorities have said Coleman attacked both responding EMTs and police with a knife before an officer shot him, but Hope Coleman disputes that.
“Ms. Coleman witnessed the entire episode leading up to the fatal shooting of her son, and she has consistently and unequivocally denied that Terrence had any weapon or threatened anyone with physical harm,” the lawsuit says.
Coleman said in a statement, “There was no reason for the Boston police to kill my son. They should not have even been there in the first place. As a mother, you would never expect that a call for medical help would end up with police shooting and killing your only son.”
Named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit are the city of Boston, Boston police Commissioner William B. Evans; James Hooley, chief of Boston Emergency Medical Services; and Officer Garrett Boyle, who fatally shot Coleman.
Police and city officials declined comment yesterday.
Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley found in August 2017 that Boyle was justified when he shot Coleman in a brownstone on Shawmut Avenue. Police and prosecutors said Coleman first slashed at a medic and then at cops with a 5-inch knife with a serrated blade.
“The EMTs were already under attack and in imminent, life-threatening danger when Boyle and his partner entered the premises. Under those circumstances,” the officer’s discharge of his weapon was legal, Conley concluded.