The family of a Connecticut man shot and killed by police in West Haven last month has filed a $10 million wrongful death lawsuit against the state and city police.
A state police officer shot Mubarak Soulemane at an I-95 exit ramp in West Haven in January. Police had chased him from Norwalk, after he was said to have stolen a car and was armed with a knife.
Soulemane’s mother, Omo Klusum Mohammed, said Thursday at a press conference her son should not have been killed.
“As a grieving mother I pray that no other family has to experience this pain,” she said.
Sanford Rubenstein is a New York civil rights attorney representing the family. He said that’s why they’ve filed the lawsuit.
“To set an example to other officers all over this country, that if you do what he did, fire seven shots rapidly into a car that is already blocked in, with a door that is closed, with a window that is closed and kill a victim in that car. You will be held accountable criminally,” he told reporters. “That’s what’s really important to this family.”
State prosecutors have opened an investigation into the incident.
