*Attorneys for the family of 16-year-old Randall Adjessom, who was fatally shot during a SWAT raid last November, have filed a federal wrongful-death lawsuit, calling the incident “racially motivated.”
According to FOX10 TV, police had arrived at the Sheringham Drive home, near Cottage Hill and Azalea roads, before dawn with a warrant for Adjessom’s brother, Deangelo, on charges of drug possession and distribution. Court records show only 8 grams of marijuana were found during the raid. However, a factual dispute remains over whether officers knocked and announced themselves before entering. The lawsuit alleges they did not, while former Police Chief Paul Prine maintained that they did.
The Mobile Police Department deployed SWAT officers due to understaffing in the narcotics unit. On November 13, 2023, just after 5:30 a.m., SWAT officers used a battering ram to break down the door of the home where Adjessom was sleeping. His family, including his mother, aunt, grandmother, and three sisters (two of whom were minors), was also present. Despite the raid, Adjessom’s older brother, who was the intended target, neither lived at the home nor was there at the time.
“We understand especially that time of the morning, that we need to wake folks up,” said Paul Prine, who was police chief during the incident, said at the time of the incident. “I am confident that this scenario, that our officers, multiple officers, did everything they could to knock and announce and make their presence known before making their way into the residence.”
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Attorneys for the family argue body camera footage shows unlawful actions, delayed aid, and a 40-minute delay in transporting Adjessom to a hospital just eight minutes away.
The lawsuit, filed last week in U.S. District Court, claims Randall posed no verbal or physical threat after the SWAT team used a battering ram to knock down the front door and break a separate window in the living room. The teenager did not attempt to use his weapon when an officer shot him four times in the abdomen and torso as he was retreating, according to FOX 10 TV. Afterward, the officers allegedly stepped over him, with one asking, “What are we going to do about this?”
In a news release, attorneys for the family said: “Randall’s mother is demonstrating great courage in bringing this action in her late son’s name and to do what she can to stop the rampant, senseless, outrageous police abuse against Mobile’s minority community. The Complaint is replete with revelations from our pre-suit investigation, perhaps none more repulsive than the fact that MPD body-worn camera (BWC) video of the shooting clearly shows Randall begin to retreat after realizing the intruders into his family home were members of the police force when he was repeatedly shot and killed in cold blood.”
The lawyers noted that Adjessom was the victim of “systemic dysfunction” with the Police Department.
The wrongful death lawsuit lists the city of Mobile and unnamed officers as defendants. The victim’s family seeks unspecified compensatory, punitive damages to deter similar future behavior, and an amount sufficient to “deter similar prohibited behavior by defendants and other law enforcement officers in the future.”
“This filing is a major step for a grieving family intent on holding accountable – at a Federal jury trial – all those responsible for this unquestionably foreseeable and preventable tragedy,” the lawyers for the Adjessom family said.
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