Family of Black man shot and killed by Delaware police sues the force

Family of Black man shot and killed by Delaware police sues the force

This video contains graphic content.

The sister of a Black man shot to death by Delaware police in January sued the officers on Wednesday, saying her brother's death was not justified and another example of unnecessary deadly force by white police against Black citizens.

This report produced by Freddie Joyner.

At her home in Bear, Delaware, Rozzlie Moses sits with her family looking at photos of her son, Lymond.

"I still can't grasp that, like, I know that he's gone, but I still look for him to walk through my daughter's door, 'Mom, what you doing?

What you cooking today mom?” Lymond Moses was shot and killed in January by New Castle County police officers.

At the time, the police department issued a press release that the 30-year-old Moses fled from officers in his car, hit a dead end, made a U-turn, then "drove at a high rate of speed directly at the officers.

The officers subsequently discharged their firearms and struck the driver." After pressure from the family and civil rights groups, the police department was ordered in March to release footage of the deadly encounter.

In the bodycam video, officers say they found Moses asleep in his car with the engine running, and marijuana visible.

The officers tell him they're out looking for stolen cars and ask him to get out of the vehicle.

At that point Moses drives off, but enters a dead-end.

The cops, guns drawn, warn him.

Moses begins to drive and the officers open fire.

The family says the footage shows Moses trying to drive around the cops, which they say contradicts the version put out by police in its press release.

On Wednesday, Lymond Moses's sister sued the officers, the police department, and New Castle County, saying her brother's death was not justified and another example of an unnecessary use of deadly force by white police against Black citizens.

[ROZZELIE MOSES, MOTHER OF LYMOND] "And for me to know in my mind that this is how they killed my son… what do I want?

I don't want nothing from the cops but to go to jail.

I felt as though you over murdered my son.” The New Castle police had no additional comment after the lawsuit was filed Wednesday but when the video was released last month, Lieutenant Brian Faulkner said: "Based upon this video, we cannot draw any conclusions as to whether the officers acted within policy and the law, until all the facts are known, and the investigation is complete." Mike Leonesio, a former police officer and expert on the use of force by police, said the footage alone does not provide a clear-cut case for Moses's family because it does not account for what the officers may have reasonably believed about the threat at the time.

The two officers have not been named and have been placed on administrative leave.

The Delaware County district attorney is investigating the shooting.