The family of Donavan Lynch, cousin of Pharrell William’s, who was murdered by police earlier this year, has filed a USD $50 million federal lawsuit against the City of Virginia Beach and the officer who allegedly shot Lynch.
As Complex report, Donavan Lynch’s father, Wayne Lynch, filed a wrongful death suit on Monday, June 21st, requesting a jury trial and demanding $50 million in damages.
The lawsuit outlines that the police officer, identified as Solomon D. Simmons III, used excessive force and acted with gross negligence when he shot and killed Lynch. It claims that Simmons failed to properly identify himself, gave no warning before firing shots, and failed to give medical aid afterwards.
Lynch was shot by officers investigating gunshots that rang out at around 11:20pm on March 26th. He and a friend, Darrion Marsh, were attempting to leave a nearby restaurant. When Lynch and Marsh were walking to their cars, Simmons “immediately, unlawfully, and without warning” fired his gun twice at Lynch, fatally wounding him. The lawsuit emphasises that neither were a threat during the incident.
“Officer Simmons was on his way to respond to an incident in which Mr. Lynch was not a suspect and not involved,” the lawsuit reads. “Mr. Lynch posed no threat to Officer Simmons or anyone else … [but] Virginia Beach Police Officer Solomon D Simmons shot Mr. Lynch twice, killing him on the streets he grew up on.”
In the wake of his cousins murder, Pharrell told Town & Country magazine, “As a Black person, when you’re born in this country, you immediately feel a much heavier gravity. The gravity is one that we see in our rules and regulations and laws. We see it in the lack of options. We see it in what we’re fed, what is marketed to us. We see it in broken educational systems.”
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Williams added, “Knowing that if Donovan had been white he wouldn’t have gotten shot multiple times and left in the street for an inhumane amount of time, ’til the next morning, no gun in hand—that’s gravity. The race of the officer doesn’t pertain to the conversation, because if Donovan had been white they would have never shot him like that.”
“So there is gravity. And there, too, is hope that things will change.”
