A Hazelwood man shot in the shoulder by a police officer last year is now suing the city, claiming he was doing exactly what officers told him to do when gunfire struck him outside his home on Eagles Way Court. Jeffrey Thompson says he had already tossed his knife to the ground when the officer opened fire during a chaotic domestic dispute on the morning of May 26, 2025.
Thompson and Jada Holmes filed the lawsuit against the city of Hazelwood and the responding officer, according to KSDK. The suit centers on the shooting that left Thompson wounded, and it alleges the officer fired two shots while still yelling commands at him, striking him in the shoulder less than 30 seconds after arriving on scene.
The confrontation began, per the lawsuit, when Thompson argued with his grandson, who was living with him at the time. Thompson told his grandson to leave the home, and the grandson's mother, Jada Holmes, tried to defuse the situation before taking a gun away from her son. When officers arrived, the grandson reportedly told one of them that Thompson had struck him with a gun.
Conflicting Accounts of the Final Seconds
Thompson then exited the home holding a knife, and the responding officer ordered him to drop the weapon. What happened next is where accounts diverge. Body-camera footage described by stltoday.com shows the officer shooting Thompson as he dropped the butcher knife, while police were reported by Fox2Now as saying Thompson refused to put down the weapon. The lawsuit itself states that Thompson tossed the knife to the ground before the officer fired, and that one of the two shots whizzed by Jada Holmes' head before the other struck Thompson in the shoulder.
St. Louis County police released body-camera footage of the incident, which included video from the responding officer. Thompson survived his injuries but was also charged with unlawful use of a weapon stemming from the encounter, according to the KSDK report.
Claims of Excessive Force and Negligence
The lawsuit claims the officer used excessive force and accuses the city of negligence for failing to equip the officer with less-than-lethal weapons. Thompson and Holmes say they have suffered physical and emotional distress as a result of the shooting, per the filing described in the KSDK report.
A counsel status hearing in the case is scheduled for February 12, with the case still ongoing. The city of Hazelwood has not been formally served with the lawsuit and has not commented on the pending litigation, according to a statement from the city clerk relayed in the KSDK report.
The case echoes another pending lawsuit in the St. Louis area, where a different officer is accused of shooting and wounding an unarmed man who was fleeing after crashing a stolen vehicle, as reported by stlpr.org. Both cases raise questions about split-second police decisions during tense confrontations, though each carries its own disputed set of facts still being sorted out in court.
