Inglewood is hit with another lawsuit involving shooting of postal worker
The victim's mother seeks a court order to force city officials to provide internal investigation records.
The mother of a U.S. Postal Service worker shot dead by Inglewood police last month has filed a $50-million federal civil rights lawsuit against the city and police that also asks for a court order to compel city officials to cooperate with investigations of the shooting.
The lawsuit is the second filed by Kevin Wicks' relatives. On Friday, the mother of his daughter announced she had filed a $25-million wrongful death claim -- precursor to a lawsuit -- in state court July 29 against the city of Inglewood and Inglewood police in connection with the shooting.
In the federal lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District court in Los Angeles, Donna Wicks alleges Inglewood Officer Brian Ragan violated her son's civil rights when he entered Kevin Wicks' apartment in the 100 block of North Hillcrest Boulevard shortly after midnight July 21 and shot him. His death, the suit argues, deprived his mother of her civil rights because she can no longer associate with her son.
In addition to Ragan, a five-year veteran of Inglewood's Police Department, the lawsuit also names as defendants the city, police and Inglewood Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks.
The suit asks for a federal court order forcing the city of Inglewood to provide internal investigation records of police misconduct complaints, officer-involved shootings and public corruption to the Citizen Police Oversight Commission and Office of Independent Review.
"They're hiding the ball," said Wicks' attorney, Gregory Yates. "This has got to come to a stop."
Inglewood police officials said Ragan shot Wicks, 38, after Wicks allegedly raised a gun at the officers while they were responding to a 911 call about a domestic disturbance.
Donna Wicks contends in her lawsuit that the domestic disturbance call did not come from Kevin Wicks apartment. The suit alleges that "officers entered the wrong apartment, without identifying themselves, for no justified reason and . . . for no lawful justification shot Kevin three times."
Police have said they responded to the apartment specified in the 911 call.
Yates said the Wicks family did not believe the police account of the shooting.
"It defies any logic that Mr. Wicks, a postal service employee who had just passed his exam to become a corrections employee, would open the door and point a gun at officers," Yates said. "It doesn't pass the smell test. We're convinced that this was an illegal use of deadly force."
Wicks had worked for the postal service for 19 years and was based in West Los Angeles at the time of his death.
Inglewood Police Sgt. Gabriela Garcia said police officials had no comment on the federal suit and were still investigating the Wicks shooting. She said Ragan was on paid administrative leave during the investigation.
The shooting provoked community outrage after it was revealed that Ragan was one of two officers involved in the May shooting of three unarmed men on Manchester Boulevard that resulted in the death of 19-year-old Michael Byoune. Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) has demanded a federal probe into the shootings.
Wicks has scheduled a news conference at noon today at her attorney's Encino office to discuss the suit.
molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com
