Family of Man Shot by LRPD Officer Try to Enlist Help of US Attorney General
By: Brittney Johnson, KARK 4 News
Updated: October 8, 2012
The family of a man shot and killed in his own apartment by Little Rock Police nearly two years ago are now pushing for help from the federal government.
The two female officers who shot and killed 67-year-old Eugene Ellis have been cleared by the department.
The family filed a wrongful death suit and now they are also sending a letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder asking for a civil rights investigation.
In December 2010, officers say Eugene Ellison was inside his apartment on Colonel Glenn with the door open.
Officers say they walked in to check on him, found his apartment was a mess and wound up in a physical altercation that ended with Officer Donna Lescher shooting and killing him.
Ellison's sons, one a current LRPD sergeant, and the other, a law enforcement professor, say they disagree with the way internal affairs investigated their father's case.
Now they want the justice department to review the case and the entire Little Rock Police Department.
"The letter to the AG Holder is not only from the family of Ellisons, but is to heighten awareness on a national level to the epidemic going out there of police shootings and fatalities that should have never taken place," says attorney David Eisbrouch.
A spokesperson with LRPD says they have no comment on this issue and they turned the case information over to the Department of Justice in 2011.
The two female officers who shot and killed 67-year-old Eugene Ellis have been cleared by the department.
The family filed a wrongful death suit and now they are also sending a letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder asking for a civil rights investigation.
In December 2010, officers say Eugene Ellison was inside his apartment on Colonel Glenn with the door open.
Officers say they walked in to check on him, found his apartment was a mess and wound up in a physical altercation that ended with Officer Donna Lescher shooting and killing him.
Ellison's sons, one a current LRPD sergeant, and the other, a law enforcement professor, say they disagree with the way internal affairs investigated their father's case.
Now they want the justice department to review the case and the entire Little Rock Police Department.
"The letter to the AG Holder is not only from the family of Ellisons, but is to heighten awareness on a national level to the epidemic going out there of police shootings and fatalities that should have never taken place," says attorney David Eisbrouch.
A spokesperson with LRPD says they have no comment on this issue and they turned the case information over to the Department of Justice in 2011.
