Family ‘terrified’ when cops shot suspect, then turned red gun lasers on them, suit says
A family unwittingly caught up in a law enforcement pursuit in which a suspect was killed is suing George and Jackson counties, whose deputies were involved, the family’s lawsuit says.
Autum M. Wiser and Robert D. Ellett have filed the lawsuit on behalf of themselves and their two children. They are accusing the counties of negligence and gross negligence, saying law enforcement officers were indifferent to the family’s safety and failed to protect them. The lawsuit also alleges the counties failed to properly train and supervise the officers involved.
Wiser and Ellett are seeking unspecified compensation for the “substantial emotional distress and trauma” they suffered, including to pay medical bills and cover lost wages.
The lawsuit represents only one side of the case. The counties have not yet had a chance to file responses.
Law enforcement officers shoot suspect
Wiser and Ellett heard on the evening of May 2, 2023, that law enforcement officers had responded to a situation near their home in the Perkinston community of George County. While they were worried, the lawsuit says, they were unsure what was going on. By 8 p.m., they said, they heard the law enforcement activity had ended.
Before dawn on May 3, the family loaded up in their pickup, with the children in the backseat, to take Ellett to work in Pascagoula. He was driving their dark-colored pickup truck. They saw a black pickup similar to theirs approach a stop sign as they neared an intersection. Otherwise, it was quiet.
“Suddenly,” the lawsuit says, “there was a bright flash of lights ahead to their right and a huge, armored vehicle raced across Broome School Road right in front of their vehicle, forcing them to come to a halt. The armored vehicle smashes into the front driver’s side of the black truck, which had not yet come to a stop . . . “
The collision pushed the black pickup into the bushes just off the road. Almost immediately, the lawsuit says, multiple gunshots were fired from the armored vehicle and eight law enforcement officers rushed out. All the officers appeared to be armed, the lawsuit says.
Some of the officers rushed toward the black truck, while others turned their attention to the truck Ellett was driving. The officers trained their guns on the family, the lawsuit says, with what appeared to be red laser sights shining on their bodies and their pickup truck.
“The officers were yelling at them,” the lawsuit says. “They were terrified, scared for their lives and for the lives of their children.”
Ellett called out that the officers should not shoot the couple or their children. He eventually got his truck into reverse, backed it up and drove home. He didn’t go to work that day and the children didn’t go to school. They were too traumatized, the lawsuit says.
Officers claim suspect fired gun
At the time, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation reported that law enforcement officers had been involved in a 16-hour standoff with the suspect, Michael Roy Carney, after attempting to serve him with a warrant that accused him of making terrorist threats.
The George County’s Sheriff’s Department and Jackson County SWAT team were on the scene, a report from WLOX-TV says. When Carney left his home in his truck, the officers pursued him. The MBI, which investigated the case, said officers shot and killed Carney after he pointed a weapon at them and started shooting.
The lawsuit also says that the family never heard the suspect fire a gun and they didn’t see him with a gun. His truck windows, the lawsuit says, appear to have been rolled up.
Christopher “Stopher” Haug of Ocean Springs, the attorney representing Ellett, Wiser and their children, said the family “is still shaken up about it.”
This story was originally published November 11, 2024 at 1:07 PM.
