cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/4990491
The family of Brittni Muldrew is suing Coconut Creek officers who fatally shot the 36-year-old and then allegedly beat her incapacitated body with a baton in a 2021 confrontation in which she backed up a vehicle toward police.
In a lawsuit filed against five Coconut Creek officers, Muldrew’s mother, Vicki Waters, claims police overreacted with deadly force after failing to de-escalate the encounter, which started off as a traffic stop but grew increasingly tense once police found the car had been reported stolen.
The lawsuit alleges one officer used a baton “to repeatedly strike Brittni in the head” while her bullet-filled body was being dragged out of the car — and continued to beat Muldrew as she lay “helplessly on the parking lot pavement.”
Waters is demanding damages for wrongful death, excessive and deadly force, and failure to intervene. Describing Muldrew as “a beloved daughter and the mother of two autistic children,” the lawsuit says she never “posed a threat to any of the defendant officers that would merit her being killed.”