LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- The estate of a mentally ill man who was fatally wounded during a standoff with the Louisville police SWAT team last April has filed a wrongful-death suit against the old city government and the metro government.
The suit, filed Tuesday in Jefferson County Circuit Court, alleges that police were negligent in causing the death of Terry L. Hines, 50.
Hines’ mother, Helen N. Hines, who is also administrator of his estate, alleges the police department failed to properly train its officers, causing her son’s death.
Helene Kramer, a spokeswoman for the Louisville Metro Police Department, said it doesn’t comment on pending litigation. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages. Hines died June 22 of gunshot wounds and other injuries sustained in the four-hour siege last April 19 and 20.
In a report on police use of deadly force published in February, The Courier-Journal said Hines was shot three hours into the standoff by SWAT team member Sgt. Fritz Graas after a police canine officer sent his dog into Hines’ Clifton apartment and Hines stabbed the dog with a butcher knife.
The canine officer went to the dog’s rescue, and Hines lunged at him with the knife, which Graas said left him no choice but to shoot Hines twice with his 9mm submachine gun.
Department records show that SWAT team Lt. Jay Pierce told investigators later that the canine officer, Wayne Kaufman, should not have gone in after the dog, but that in his defense, he had never trained with the SWAT team.