HOUSTON — A federal lawsuit against four Houston police officers who shot and killed a man outside his home two years ago will move forward.
That comes after a federal appeals court denied a request by the officers to dismiss the civil case filed by Charion Lockett’s mother.
“These are not a bunch of liberals up in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals,” said Randall Kallinen, the family’s lawyer, during a press conference Thursday morning. “They’re conservative people. So, they saw something here.”
Kallinen accuses Houston Police Department of “cherry-picking” which body camera video they released publicly from nine officers at the scene.
With this ruling, Kallinen is expecting to get more videos and depositions from the officers involved.
Two years later, the anger and pain haven’t left Shanetta Lewis and other family and friends of Charion Lockett, who gathered outside the federal courthouse in downtown Houston Thursday morning.
“I haven’t been home in two years cause they killed him at our home,” said Lewis, Lockett’s mother. “I just want justice and some answers.”
Lewis says her only child had bachelor’s and master’s degrees in criminal justice and was a week away from taking the Law School Admissions Test when law enforcement officers killed him Feb. 7, 2022.
“We can’t bring him back, but I want the ones that done it to him to be held accountable for it,” said Lewis.
That shooting on Oak West Drive in North Harris County happened while Houston police were serving a warrant on an aggravated robbery charge from November 2021.
Investigators say a man who said he knew Lockett from high school told police Lockett and another man tried to rob him in a parking lot, and shots were fired.
“(The complainant) was a criminal, and we know nothing about him,” said Lewis. “Charion has never been in trouble. He’s never had a traffic ticket.”
Shortly after the incident, Chief Troy Finner said officers were defending themselves.
"Before they can get out of the car, the suspect began to fire upon them multiple times,” said Chief Finner, during a briefing at the scene on February 7, 2022. “Four officers returned fire."
Kallinen said the video HPD released doesn’t show that.
“(The officers) were in an unmarked car, without a uniform, without announcing themselves, and pointed a gun at him, and shot him and shot him and shot him, and when he went towards his house, they shot him in the back,” said Kallinen.
An HPD spokesperson said Thursday the department does not comment on pending lawsuits. They referred KHOU 11 News to the City Attorney.
KHOU 11 News received the following statement from City Attorney Arturo Michel:
“This opinion, where the Fifth Circuit upheld the trial court’s denial of the individual officer’s immunity defense, reflects only that the allegations in the complaint, if true, warrant the lawsuit proceeding beyond the current stage, rather than be dismissed. The court assumed the truth of the allegations in the complaint. The City’s investigation shows a different set of facts and a different conclusion regarding liability. The ruling means the lawsuit will proceed through the discovery stage, and likely the city will move for dismissal at the conclusion of discovery with evidence of actual facts. The court’s opinion is not pre-judging the facts or implying that either side’s version is more likely to be true than not. As stated above, for purposes of this early stage of the proceedings, the court assumed the complaint’s version to determine whether such facts were legally sufficient for the lawsuit to proceed.”
A grand jury declined to indict the four officers on criminal charges.