Lawsuit filed after off-duty officer, ‘mob’ allegedly tried to force way into Black teen’s home

By Ivan Pereira | January 26, 2021, 9:06 PM

A former North Carolina police officer who was fired and criminally charged last year after he allegedly gathered a group of armed people and tried to enter the home of a Black teen who he thought was a suspect in the case of a missing person, has been sued by the victim’s family Tuesday.

Attorneys for Monica Shepard and her 18-year-old son Dameon filed the civil suit in North Carolina Tuesday contending that their clients were racially profiled and terrorized by former deputy Jordan Kita, and 14 other white defendants, some of whom were armed, who said they were looking for a missing woman.

Kita was off-duty but in uniform and had his sidearm when he came to the Shepard’s Pender County home on May 3, 2020, along with the group, according to the suit.

Kita told Dameon he was looking for a Black suspect with a different name than Dameon’s and tried to force himself into the home even though the teen repeatedly identified himself and said the suspect didn’t live in the address, the suit said. Monica Shepard eventually forced Kita out of the doorway and the crowd dispersed, according to the suit.

The missing girl was eventually found safe, according to the New Hanover and Pender County District Attorney’s office.

“When a dozen or more white men and women with guns invade a Black family’s property, terrorize the people that live there, and refuse to listen or leave, the situation can easily spiral into tragic and deadly racial violence and death,” Mark Dorosin, an attorney representing the Shepards, said in a statement to ABC News.

The New Hanover County Sheriff’s office fired Kita and prosecutors charged him with “forcible trespass, misdemeanor breaking and entering, and willful failure to discharge duties” for his role in the incident.

Read more at https://abcnews.go.com/US/lawsuit-filed-off-duty-officer-mob-allegedly-force/story?id=75496788.