Lawyers ask judge to overturn verdict in 2013 fatal shooting

Associated Press

SEATTLE — Lawyers for Lakewood police are asking a federal judge to overturn a $15.1 million civil-rights verdict in a lawsuit over the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man.

The Seattle Times reported the police department’s lawyers argued that the jury reached their conclusion because the court allowed the lawyer representing Leonard Thomas’ family to “play the race card.” Thomas died in 2013 after being shot by a SWAT sniper as police were responding to a family argument out of Thomas’s Fife home.

Lakewood police’s lawyer Jeremy Culumber asked the judge to grant the city a new trial or reduce the amount of damages by more than $12 million.

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