There’s a new chapter in the case of Darrius Stewart, the Memphis teenager shot and killed by a Memphis Police Officer nearly four years ago.
Monday, the attorney representing Stewart’s family filed an appeal challenging a judge’s decision last month to drop the city of Memphis as a defendant in a federal civil lawsuit.
The filing came the same day the federal civil trial against now former MPD Officer Connor Schilling was supposed to begin. But it won’t start for at least another year, while the legal challenge involving the city of Memphis plays out.
Schilling shot and killed the 19-year-old Stewart in Hickory Hill in 2015. Stewart was a passenger in the car and police said he had an out of state warrant. When Schilling tried to put him into handcuffs, Stewart kicked the door and attacked the officer, before the deadly shots were fired.
Cell phone video showed the two tussling, and a grand jury declined to indict Schilling.
The federal lawsuit, filed in July 2016, contended Stewart was trying to run away when he was shot, and questioned MPD’s training tactics.
“It was a 19-year-old, it was a passenger in a car, that’s dead,” said Carlos Moore, an attorney representing Darrius Stewart’s family. “That young man had all of his life left to live, and he’s not going to come here, but we are going to fight for the end for justice, and so it would be my advice to them to fight to the very end for justice, however that may be.”
Bruce McMullen, the city of Memphis’ chief legal officer, responded: “This is a regular part of any lawsuit. We are confident the court’s ruling was correct and will withstand the scrutiny of an appeal.”
Arguments on the latest appeal aren’t expected until the fall.