OTTAWA — The family of Joseph Jennings have filed a federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., against the city of Ottawa, Franklin County and 10 police officers and deputies in Jennings’ death two years ago. In his court filing, the family’s attorney Robert Bjerg said the officers, the city and county deprived the 18-year-old Jennings of his civil rights when he was shot several times during a 17-minute confrontation Aug. 23, 2014, in the Orscheln Farm and Home parking lot, 2008 S. Princeton, in southern Ottawa. Jennings, who had a history of mental illness and had suffered a drug overdose that may have been an attempt to commit suicide the evening before and who the filing said was experiencing a mental health crisis when the confrontation occurred, called the 911 dispatch center and reported a man was waving a gun around in the parking lot. Jennings gave the dispatcher a description of himself. Several officers surrounded him during the confrontation and officers ordered him to show his hands, which he didn’t do. Officers opened fire when Jennings pulled a pair of sunglasses out of his waistband of his pants and pointed them at some officers, the filing said. Bjerg’s filing accuses A.J. Schmidt, Justin Bulcock and Casey Gilmore of the Ottawa police; and Jesse Vega and Ricky Wilson, of the sheriff’s office; of firing at Jennings. “Although Mr. Jennings was completely unarmed, he was committing no crime, and he was not a threat to anyone, defendants Schmidt, Vega, Wilson, Bulcock, and Gilmore killed Mr. Jennings by firing their weapons a total of at least 29 times,” Bjerg’s filing said. The family is also suing five other officers involved in the confrontation: Doug Waterman, Bryce Hart and Derek Butters, of the Ottawa police; and Hunter Dryden and Dwayne Woods, of the sheriff’s office. The filing said they didn’t fire but that they didn’t do enough to de-escalate the situation. The filing notes that some bullets struck a house across Princeton Street at least three times. The filing said the officers didn’t have enough training to deal with people in mental crisis. The inadequate training demonstrates a deliberate indifference on the part ofdefendants City of Ottawa and Franklin County,” the filing said. Jennings’ family is asking for at least $75,000 in each of six counts. They’ve requested a jury trial. There has been no formal response from the defendants. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation looked at the incident. After examining the KBI report, county attorney Stephen Hunting declined to press criminal charges.
Monday, Oct. 31, 7 a.m.
