U.S. District Court Camden
By NANETTE LoBIONDO GALLOWAY
CAMDEN – The attorney representing Ventnor City, the Ventnor City Police Department and five of its officers in a civil suit filed to move the case from Atlantic County Superior Court to U.S. District Court in Camden as of Dec. 28, 2022.
According to Ventnor’s attorney, Thomas B. Reynolds of Reynolds & Horn, PC of Atlantic City, the case was moved to federal court because another set of attorneys have also filed a suit in federal court.
“We want it all to be in one place,” Reynolds said Wednesday morning.
Amaala Medina-Johnson of Bronx, New York, is the mother of Ammir Johnson, 30, of Wilkes Barre, Pa., who died Aug. 6, 2020 after being shot by police on Wellington/West End Avenue.
According to the complaint filed by attorney Ejikeme N. Uzor of Union, which demanded a jury trial, Johnson only threatened his own life by slashing his wrists and made no threats to anyone else. Police responded and observed Johnson with a bottle in his hand.
Officers arrived, pointing their firearms at Johnson. One of the officers tried to use a taser, but it was inoperable. The lawsuit states police made no attempts to secure another taser and instead, negligently shot Johnson, who was transported to the hospital where he died from his wounds.
The lawsuit includes four counts, including violation of Johnson’s federal and state civil rights, wrongful death and negligence. The lawsuit alleges police failed to implement policies and procedures for dealing with mentally ill individuals, failed to use a less lethal form of equipment such as a taser, failed to properly maintain and regularly test their tasers, breaching their duties and failing to implement precautions to protect Johnson. Police were negligent and failed to fulfill their duties and acted with malice and wanton and willful disregard for the safety of citizens of Ventnor City, it further states.
The lawsuit demands compensatory and punitive damages of an unspecified amount.
The NJ Attorney General’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability conducted an investigation following the shooting and named Officers Michael Arena, Pierluigi Mancuso and Robert Scarborough of the Ventnor City Police as the officers involved in the shooting. The Attorney General released 911 audio and video recordings from the officers’ body-worn cameras.
On June 27, 2022, a state Grand Jury hearing the case declined to file any criminal charges against the officers.
According to the Attorney General’s investigation, it was approximately 4:15 p.m. on Aug. 6, 2020, that officers from the Ventnor and Atlantic City Police Departments responded to a 911 call concerning a man behaving erratically in the vicinity of Wellington Avenue and West End Avenue. When the responding officers encountered Johnson, he was walking in and out of a marsh along the roadway, while holding a broken glass bottle in his hand. He had self-inflicted lacerations on his arms and was bleeding from his neck. The officers engaged with Johnson and offered him assistance, but he refused their efforts and failed to comply with their commands, including repeated requests for him to drop the bottle, the Attorney General said. Instead, he continued to walk back and forth on the roadway, where officers had stopped traffic for safety reasons. Officers continued to speak with Johnson, who was threatening to inflict additional self-harm, for several minutes. One officer was armed with a taser and attempted to deploy it; however, this was unsuccessful.
At approximately 4:30 p.m., Johnson was near a vehicle occupied by civilians when he rapidly advanced at officers with the broken bottle in his hand. Three officers fired their weapons, fatally wounding him. He was rushed by ambulance to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center Atlantic City Campus, where he was pronounced deceased at approximately 6 p.m.
State law requires the Attorney General’s Office to conduct investigations of a person’s death that occurs during an encounter with a law enforcement officer acting in the officer’s official capacity or while the decedent is in custody. It requires that all such investigations be presented to a grand jury to determine if the evidence supports the return of an indictment against the officer or officers involved. An officer may use deadly force in New Jersey when the officer reasonably believes it is immediately necessary to protect the officer or another person from imminent danger of death or serious bodily harm, the Attorney General said.
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