Family of teen slain by police files $150M suit

The parents of a teenager killed by a Cobb County police officer have filed a lawsuit against the county and the officer who fired the fatal shots.

Vincent Truitt, 17, was shot twice in the back July 13, 2020, after a police chase near Six Flags Over Georgia ended behind a warehouse on Riverside Parkway.

The Atlanta teen jumped out of a stolen Nissan Altima with a gun, but appeared to be running away from Officer Max Karneol when he was shot, according to the officer’s body camera footage. A pistol was later recovered at the scene.

The $150 million wrongful death lawsuit, filed Jan. 11 in federal court, is believed to be the most money sought in a deadly police shooting in Georgia history, attorney Gerald Griggs said Wednesday.

The case was presented to a grand jury last February. After deliberating for nearly eight hours, the grand jury decided Karneol was within his rights to use deadly force when he killed Truitt, Cobb County District Attorney Flynn Broady Jr. said.

Hours after the decision not to charge Karneol, prosecutors showed a combination of surveillance, body camera and dash camera footage from the moments leading up to, and including, Truitt’s shooting. It was the first time the video had been made public.

Karneol didn’t appear to give any commands or instruct the teen to drop the weapon before opening fire, but Broady said the officer wasn’t required to, based on his training.

“Each of our police agencies has a (standard operating procedure) for their use of force,” Broady said at the time. “Just following the law ... it says that if an officer is chasing a felon who has a weapon — who can pose a danger to others — he has the ability to fire, to use deadly force.

“In this case, the officer followed his SOP to the letter and also followed the law,” Broady said.

Truitt’s family disagreed with the decision not charge the officer, arguing the teen was clearly running away when he was killed. According to the 30-page lawsuit, Truitt was picked up by a friend that evening and didn’t know the car was stolen.

Truitt, the lawsuit states, “did not pose an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm to (the officer) or anyone else when he was intentionally shot in the back.”

Attorney Jackie Patterson, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Truitt’s parents, said Cobb prosecutors never intended to charge the officer.

“From the moment Truitt exited the vehicle, he never even saw the officer,” Patterson said Wednesday. “He ran totally in the opposite direction and never threatened the officer in any way.”

Griggs said the police shooting was “absolutely unjustified.”

“We believe his actions were wholly unreasonable and violated Mr. Truitt’s constitutional rights,” Griggs said, adding Truitt’s parents are “anxious to get justice and accountability.”

A county spokesman said Wednesday that Cobb officials intend to fight the lawsuit.