Family Announces Lawsuit for Sacramento Sheriff's Dept Killing of Kershawn Geyger

photo credit BLM Sacramento

The family of Kershawn Geyger, the 25-year-old man killed at the hands of Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputies on Jan. 15, 2021, announced today that they have brought a lawsuit against the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office and the County of Sacramento for wrongful death resulting from deputies’ excessive use of force in the shooting of Kershawn Geyger.

 

The lawsuit, filed in Federal Court in the Eastern District of California, alleges that Kershawn Geyger was wrongfully shot and killed by Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputies. The Complaint lists numerous causes of action including, wrongful death, violations of the United States Constitution, and the Bane Act. According to the lawsuit:

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- Neither the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department nor the County has provided any indication of the outcome of their internal investigation into the incident that claimed Geyger’s life.

- Meanwhile, these deputies remain on duty, posing a continued potential threat to the safety and well-being ofthe community.

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Walter Mosley of Mosley & Associates, attorneys for the Geyger family, stated: “The open season of police killing men, women and children of color must stop. We cannot continue to ignore this senseless and tragic loss of life as if this is some type of police status quo. This Firm will continue its effort to hold the Sheriff’s Department accountable to the people they swear to serve and protect”. 

 

Nathalie Meza Contreras, also of Mosley & Associates, stated: “Without any answers from the County of Sacramento or its Sheriff’s Department, the family of Kershawn Geyger now turns to the Courts to seek justice for his death at the hands of the Sheriff’s deputies. We want justice for Kershawn and his family!”

 

Yaphette Geiger, the mother of Kershawn Geyger, said the following in conjunction with the filing of the lawsuit: “I want answers.” 

 

On the evening of January 15, 2021, Geyger was shot and killed by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s gang suppression unitoutside a housing complex in Carmichael. While the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department was quick to issue press releases and animated videos depicting the fatal shooting as the outcome of a “shootout” – falsely insinuating that Geyger was the aggressor or acted first to deploy lethal force – civilian eyewitness statements maintain that deputies began firing their guns with abandon mere split seconds after demanding he put his hands up.

 

In the aftermath of Geyger’s death, the clear lack of transparency and accountability by officials shows that the Sheriff’s Department and County pay little regard to the life and death concerns or expectations of justice from the community. Instead, the County and Sheriff’s Department has displayed a clear carelessness and lack of remorse for the violent misconduct of deputies.

 

Kershawn’s brother, JW Geiger, who was in the same car as his brother during the fatal encounter and witnessed his death, has also filed a lawsuit alleging a range of violations of his Constitutional rights and the negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress. 

 

The tragic and wholly unnecessary killing of Kershawn Geyger by Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputies has heightened the already palpable sense of fear among community members – and Black community members in particular – that they or a loved one may become another statistic in the acute crisis of fatal police violence across the United States. 

 

The lawsuit is brought by Kershawn’s parents, Yaphette Geiger and Jethro Geiger, and his surviving children. The lawsuit demands more than $100,000,000 in damages. The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department and County of Sacramento are required to respond to the lawsuit by Jan. 28, 2022.

 

“Nearly one year since the violent death of Kershawn Geyer, the deputies continue to work uninterrupted for and with the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department while the friends, family and community of Geyer still grieve his loss and the brutal proof in question of his killing; a change must come,”says Attorney Walter Mosley.

 

We believe it is imperative for the media hear from the parents of Kershawn who appeared to be silenced due to the immediate press ploy video distributed to the media as a tactic by the Sacramento County’s Sheriff’s Department,” says Attorney Walter Mosley.

 

A press conference was be held via Zoom on January 10, 2022 with the Geiger Family, Black Lives Matter Sacramento, and attorneys Walter Mosley and Nathalie Meza Contreras of Mosley & Associates.