The family of a carjacking suspect fatally shot by Kane County sheriff’s deputies in 2023 has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the sheriff’s office.
James Moriarty, of Aurora, was shot and killed May 23, 2023, at the Randall Road and Fabyan Parkway intersection on the border of Batavia and Geneva after he stole a car and led police on a chase through the western suburbs, officials have said.
Moriarty, 38, crashed the car when sheriff’s deputies stopped it. He got out, and sheriff’s deputies unleashed a police dog which knocked away what police believed was a handgun. It turned out to be an “airsoft gun,” Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser said.
Three Kane County officers fired 18 shots. Moriarty sustained 17 gunshot or graze wounds, including eight shots that struck him in the back or backside.
The 4-year-old canine officer, a Dutch shepherd named Hudson, was accidentally shot and killed by the officers, Mosser has said.
Mosser announced this month that her office will not file criminal charges against any of the officers involved in the shooting.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court by Moriarty’s family, names a deputy who fired 13 shots and Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain as defendants.
A day before the shooting, Aurora officials allege Hain botched an undercover operation by Aurora police to arrest Moriarty, who had a history of drug and other offenses, and addiction issues.
Aurora cops had staked outside Moriarty’s apartment, near his parked car, hoping to arrest him without incident, police records show.
But Hain ordered his deputies to seize the car.
The lawsuit alleges the Aurora Police Department’s plan to arrest Moriarty “would have resulted in Moriarty’s arrest without being shot or bit by a police dog.”
“Hain’s decision was the moving force and direct cause of Moriarty’s injuries,” the lawsuit claims.
Hain has stood by the decisions by him and his officers, calling the deputies involved in the shooting “heroes.”
The Kane County sheriff’s office could not immediately be reached for comment.
A hearing on the lawsuit has not been scheduled.