DETROIT (WWJ) – The family of Porter Burks, the 20-year-old mentally ill man killed by Detroit police officers while wielding a knife last weekend, is planning to sue the Detroit Police Department and the officers involved in the shooting.
The family has retained prominent Metro Detroit attorney Geoffrey Fieger after Burks was shot and killed early Sunday morning on the city's west side.
Detroit police officials earlier this week said five officers fired a total of 38 shots in the span of three seconds as Burks charged "at a dead sprint" towards officers who had spent several minutes trying to get him to drop the knife and get him medical help.
Fieger said Thursday he will file the lawsuit next week on behalf of Burks' mother as the personal representative in the case. The lawsuit will allege negligence and a violation of Burks' civil rights.
Fieger claimed Thursday the officers deployed a Taser on Burks, but it didn't take effect, just a short moment before opening fire with their weapons while he was still over 40 feet away and "not a real threat to police."
"I sat there watching and I saw the incredible distance between the officer whose body cam was filming this and Porter and I saw him being shot at a distance that no one in their right mind would think they're in danger," Fieger said.
Burks, diagnosed with schizophrenia three years ago, was experiencing a mental health crisis at the time he was killed. Detroit Police Chief James White on Tuesday said officers followed crisis intervention training protocols.
But Fieger claims the Crisis Intervention Team was incompetent.
"If their Crisis Intervention Team consists of somebody holding out their hand 30, 40, 50 feet away and if somebody raises their hands like Porter Burks did in that video, he has a firing squad behind him and they shoot him 38 times after tasing him – if that's crisis intervention, God help us all," Fieger said.
Fieger continued to slam the officers' use of lethal force.
"If Porter was a wild animal, a vicious animal, a tiger, a lion, you know how to shoot him with a tranquilizing gun," Fieger said. "Why would you shoot him with 38 bullets? Why would you treat him worse than a wild animal?"
Authorities have not confirmed how many times Burks was shot, but said on Tuesday he was not hit by all 38 shots. Police believe he was struck around 15 times, but an autopsy would confirm that number.
The Detroit Police Department responded to Fieger's comments Thursday with a press release, saying they normally wouldn't respond to statements made by attorneys in litigation with the city, "but some comments made by Mr. Fieger today cannot go uncorrected."
Police officials say the body cam videos shown on Tuesday show "the efforts our officers made to de-escalate the situation."
"DPD is proud of the many times we have achieved safe outcomes with armed and mentally ill individuals by relying on trained interaction and a great deal of patience," the department's press release said. "The officers hoped to achieve the same outcome with Mr. Burks, until he charged at an officer with a knife. The officers had only 5 seconds to stop the threat."
Officials said Fieger's claim that officers "dumped Mr. Burks at the hospital are just plain false."
Officers immediately took Burks to Sinai-Grace Hospital in a squad car, according to the department.
"One officer performed chest compressions on Mr. Burks in the back of the police car the entire way to the hospital in an attempt to keep him alive," officials said. "At the hospital, officers remained with Mr. Burks and remained engaged with the medical staff until a doctor, sadly, pronounced him dead."
The department is calling the shooting of Burks "a tragedy felt by everyone in the community and by every member of the Detroit Police Department."
"Unfortunately, Detroit Police officers are having to confront a growing number of cases of armed individuals suffering from mental illness in our community," the department said.
The case is still under investigation both internally and by Michigan State Police.
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