JONESBORO — Jury selection is set to start in a $250 million civil lawsuit filed against two West Memphis police officers involved in the June 2007 shooting death of a 12-year-old boy.
The Jonesboro Sun reports the federal trial will start Monday and is expected to last a week. Last October, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from officers Erik Sammis and Jimmy Evans, who maintained the lawsuit shouldn’t go to trial.
The officers were conducting nighttime surveillance when Sammis fatally shot DeAunta Farrow. Police have said the boy was holding a toy gun in a dimly lit parking lot.
Farrow’s family and the family of a boy with Farrow at the time of the shooting sued the officers, saying they used excessive force and violated their civil rights.