DENVER—A federal magistrate has recommended dismissing civil rights claims in a lawsuit filed by the family of a Sudanese refugee who was shot to death after a 911 operator told him to return to Denver from a neighboring suburb, which could move the case to state court.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Hegarty said the operator’s actions likely played a role in Jimma Reat’s death in 2012, but there appear to be no U.S. constitutional issues. The lawsuit involves the operator and the city.
Hegarty said the operator’s actions were probably unwise, but not outrageous enough to qualify as a federal issue.
Police said the operator received a call from passengers in a vehicle reporting that people in another vehicle threw bottles at their car, breaking a window. The passengers had left the spot in Denver where it happened in order to call 911 from the nearby city of Wheat Ridge.
The dispatcher told them to go back to the scene, where the suspect vehicle returned and fired a gun, killing Reat.
According to the Denver Post ( ), it will be up to U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn to decide whether to dismiss the claims.
The Denver 911 operator was fired, “but his conduct does not render him constitutionally culpable in light of the circumstances he confronted during the 911 call,” Hegarty wrote.
According to court records, the operator was involved in another incident earlier that year in which a call was mishandled and he still kept his job.
John Holland, the lawyer for the victim’s family, disagreed with the magistrate and will ask for further review of the case. There was ample evidence the 911 operator knew he created a danger for Reat and the other passengers, violating Reat’s constitutional rights, he said.
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Information from: The Denver Post,
