Aderrien Murry, left, and Indianola Police Sgt. Greg Capers (Photos courtesy attorney Carlos Moore via Mississippi Free Press)
A police officer of the year in Mississippi shot an 11-year-old boy who called 911 after his mom asked for help when her angry ex-boyfriend showed up, a lawsuit alleges.
A lawyer for the family of Aderrien Murry said the shooting happened May 20 when Indianola Police Sgt. Greg Capers arrived at the home and tried to kick in the door, and ordered the boy out with his hands up.
Attorney Carlos Moore said in a news conference announcing a $5 million lawsuit 10 days after the shooting that it went down after the boy heard his mother, Nakala Murry, crying when the ex arrived. She slipped Aderrien the cellphone and asked him to call the police and his grandmother.
“A brave and courageous young man tried to come to the rescue of his mother,” Moore said.
Little did he know he would be fighting for his life, Moore said.
When his mother opened the door, she told Capers that her ex-boyfriend “was running out of the back of the house and did not have a gun,” Moore said.
“He had a gun blazing as soon as she opened the door,” Moore added. “Luckily, she didn’t get shot.”
Aderrien got shot while following the officer’s commands, Moore said.
“The officer told him to come out of the house. He stuck his head in the door to see if anyone else was in the house and ordered, ‘Come out with your hands up!'” Moore said. “Being obedient, Aderrien Murry heard the command and came out with his hands up.”
Seconds later, he was shot in the chest.
“It is the most egregious piece of excessive force I’ve witnessed or heard in my 21 years of law practice,” Moore said. “This poor young child, who was simply trying to help his mother, almost lost his life.”
The boy thought he was about to die.
“He started telling his mother as he collapsed in her arms who to tell — family members, teachers — that he was sorry. He wanted to seek forgiveness before he met his maker,” according to Moore.
The boy suffered major injuries, including a collapsed lung, lacerated liver and fractured ribs. At the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi, he was given a chest tube and placed on oxygen. He was released from the hospital days later and miraculously recovered.
In an exclusive interview on “Good Morning America,” the boy talked about the terrifying ordeal.
“It felt like a Taser, like a big punch to the chest,” he told GMA.
Mayor Ken Featherstone didn’t respond to an email seeking comment, but he told ABC News he met with Aderrien, and he and his wife delivered a care package.
“Our thoughts and our prayers go out to him as well as his family,” the mayor said, adding that he knew Aderrien before the shooting because he supported the boy’s little league football team.
He urged calm as the investigation was ongoing.
“To the citizens of Indianola – trust the process, please be patient. We’re trying to do everything by the book and not make any mistakes that will embarrass our town,” Featherstone reportedly said. “A lot has happened, and we’ve gotten a lot of negative press as a result of this. I’m a brand new mayor, just a little over a year into my office. [This is] certainly not the kind of media attention I would have liked to bring to Indianola.”
A message seeking comment from the police department was not returned, but the agency confirmed to CNN that Capers discharged his weapon.
Moore told The Independent that the city was stonewalling their requests for police body camera footage and has not offered an explanation.
Capers was honored as a Policeman of the Year in 2021. He was first placed on paid administrative leave as the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI) reviews the case, The Enterprise-Tocsin reported, but it was then changed to without pay, according to the officer’s attorney.
Capers’ attorney Michael Carr said in a statement to Law&Crime that his client wasn’t given due process by the city board that voted to suspend him and that Capers found out about the suspension without pay on social media.
Carr said the city’s decision to change the suspension from with pay to without pay is a cost-saving measure as part of an administrative process “which has nothing to do with the facts of the criminal allegation by the mother of the child.”
Carr said the shooting was unintentional and Capers did not mean to shoot the child.
Carr added that body camera footage, once it’s released, “will fully and finally clarify what happened.”
“Sgt Capers is glad that the child is recovering and is very sorry that this happened,” Carr said.
In an email to Law&Crime, Moore said his client demands Capers’ termination, his prosecution, and the release of the body camera footage.
“We will fight to the end for complete justice for Aderrien Murry in both the civil and criminal arenas,” he said.
Details about the case came out in the complaint filed in federal court in Mississippi. It names the city of Indianola, Chief Ronald Sampson and Capers as defendants. It alleges excessive force, gross negligence and reckless disregard in the training and monitoring of officers.
The lawsuit details that call on May 20 at 4 a.m., when the boy’s mother received an unexpected visit from an irate father of one of her minor children. Inside the home were the mom, her two minor children and her nephew.
Murry instructed her son to call the police because she feared for her and the children’s safety, court documents said.
Capers arrived with his firearm drawn at the front door and asked everyone inside the residence to come out. As the boy was coming around the corner of the hallway leading to the living room area, Capers instantly shot him, court documents said.
“Defendant Officer Capers failed to assess the situation before displaying and/or discharging his firearm,” court documents said.
His mom claims she suffered serious emotional distress from witnessing her son being shot.
“The reprehensible acts of the defendants demonstrate grossly negligent, oppressive, and reckless conduct,” court documents said.
The complaint alleges that there have been numerous allegationsmade over the past several years about incidents of abuse and excessive use of force caused by Capers. Details about those incidents were not noted in the complaint.
“The decision by the defendants city and Chief Sampson to hire, train, and retain and not discipline this officer resulted in the creation of an environment of excessive force and violence,” the complaint said. “The defendants’ overall conduct on the date in question was so outrageous that it shocks the moral and legal conscience of the community.”
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