The family of a Seguin man shot and killed by a Guadalupe County deputy last year has taken its fight to federal court, filing a lawsuit Monday that accuses the deputy and the county of using excessive force and failing to properly de-escalate the encounter. The complaint centers on an August 2024 incident that ended with 77-year-old Kenneth Grimm dead in a gated subdivision outside Seguin, in what relatives say began as a call for medical help, as reported by KENS5.
According to KENS5, the federal complaint names the deputy and Guadalupe County as defendants and alleges the county failed to train and equip deputies with less-lethal tools and crisis-intervention options. KENS5 reports the family is seeking both damages and policy changes. The full filing had not been posted publicly as of the initial coverage.
Grimm, a retired U.S. Navy veteran who family members say suffered from Parkinson's disease and dementia, was shot on Aug. 27, 2024, on Nogal Street in the gated Las Brisas subdivision outside Seguin. That timeline, and the family's account that the 911 call was for medical aid rather than a crime in progress, had been detailed in earlier reporting and at a family news conference, as KSAT reported.
Video released by the family and reviewed by local outlets appears to show the deputy confronting Grimm after relatives warned him about Grimm's medical conditions. As Seguin Today reported, the family says Grimm was slow-moving and that the deputy fired shortly after Grimm pulled a knife, a sequence relatives argue could and should have been handled without lethal force.
State investigators from the Texas Rangers took over the probe after the shooting, a standard step in officer-involved deaths in Texas while criminal and administrative reviews move forward. The initial timeline of the case and confirmation of the Rangers' involvement were laid out by the San Antonio Express-News.
The family has repeatedly pressed for policy changes, arguing that nonlethal options and crisis-intervention training might have prevented Grimm's death. County officials later said they would review policies and seek funding for tasers and other less-lethal gear, a response covered by KSAT.
What The Federal Lawsuit Is Likely To Argue
Federal civil-rights suits tied to deadly force commonly invoke 42 U.S.C. § 1983, which allows people to sue government actors for depriving them of constitutional rights; the Legal Information Institute provides a primer on that statute. Actions under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against individual officers often appear alongside claims against a county for failure to train or supervise, using the municipal-liability framework established in Monell v. Department of Social Services. If the Grimm family pursues those theories, their suit will focus both on the deputy's split-second decisions and on whether county policies left officers without safer options.
Family attorney Randall Kallinen, who has represented the Grimms in past public appearances, has publicly urged changes to how deputies handle mental-health and elder-care calls, comments that were covered by local outlets and reported by Seguin Today. County officials did not immediately respond to questions about the new federal filing, according to initial coverage. KENS5 noted that the Texas Rangers' investigation remains open as the legal fight moves ahead.
