A St. Louis father has been awarded a substantial sum following the fatal shooting of his son by a police officer. According to FOX 2, a federal jury awarded Dennis Ball-Bey $18.75 million in connection with the death of his 18-year-old son, Mansur Ball-Bey, in August 2015. The case, which unfolded almost a decade ago, involved an officer shooting Mansur during a police raid. The officers claimed the young man had a gun, though this was later contested.
Mansur Ball-Bey was shot in the back on Walton Avenue, St. Louis, following a police raid at a relative's home. No criminal charges were brought against the officers involved in the incident, both of whom were later fired for unrelated reasons, as mentioned by First Alert 4. The officer named in the lawsuit has sought a new trial. Mansur's family members have contended he was not armed at the time of the shooting, a position supported by the jury's findings and coroner's reports.
The legal team representing Dennis Ball-Bey pressed the issue of police accountability, arguing that the shooting was unjust and that Mansur was unarmed. “We’ve been arguing for years that Mansur was unarmed and was shot in the back and killed in cold blood. And today, a federal jury of nine unanimously agreed with us,” Javad Khazaeli, Dennis’ attorney, told FOX 2. The substantial financial verdict is seen by Mansur's family and their attorneys as a step towards demanding a change in police practices to prevent similar tragedies.
In the trial that led to the award, the distance between Mansur's body and the location where a gun was discovered became a pivotal point. Javad Khazaeli probed the jurors in his closing argument, questioning, “Why is there a body here, and a gun 164 feet away?” as documented by St. Louis Post-Dispatch's STLtoday.
