PASADENA, Calif.—The parents of a college student who was shot and killed by Pasadena police officers filed a wrongful death and civil rights lawsuit against the city Tuesday.
In the filing, the parents of Kenneth McDade and Anya Slaughter allege the Pasadena Police Department tried to cover up its wrongdoing in the shooting death of their son Kendrec McDade, 19.
Meanwhile, the man whose 911 call to police allegedly triggered the shooting, was released from a federal immigration hold with electronic monitoring Tuesday. Federal officials said they have agreed to delay Oscar Carrillo's deportation until Pasadena police concludes its criminal investigation.
Police were seeking a charge of involuntary manslaughter against Carrillo, who told a 911 dispatcher that his laptop and backpack had just been stolen by two men with guns. McDade did not have a weapon. Prosecutors tentatively rejected the request to file the manslaughter charge against Carillo on Monday.
McDade's parents' attorney Caree Harper said the 911 call made by Carillo claiming the teenager was armed and dangerous was suspicious and criminal, but police can't blame Carillo for shooting the boy.
The lawsuit alleges Kendrec McDade's death was part of a pattern of abuse and killings of black people in Pasadena at the hands of police, including the shooting death of Leroy Barnes Jr. who was shot 11 times in 2009 by the department's officers.
The suit alleges Kendrec McDade
Advertisement
was never ordered to stop what he was doing or freeze and police reports do not mention the teen defying police orders.
Officers say they fired when McDade reached for his waistband.
"Instead of doing any real investigations the policy and practice at (the Pasadena Police Department) is to quash the community uproar with uninformative political style town hall meetings; divide and conquer concerned community groups by calling said meetings at or same time as NAACP events," according to the filing.
The city attorney hasn't seen the lawsuit and couldn't comment, Pasadena city spokesman Tim McGillivray said Tuesday.