Mother of 16-year-old slain by Des Moines police files wrongful death lawsuit

The mother of a 16-year-old boy who Des Moines police shot and killed in a confrontation in a south-side apartment on Dec. 26, 2022, has filed a lawsuit against the officers, police chief and city, saying her son's death was the result of "a reckless, unlawful and unjustified use of force."

Monica Woods in her suit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, also accuses Chief Dana Wingert and the police department of failing to properly train the three officers involved in the shooting in de-escalation techniques that could have helped prevent his death.

Contacted by the Des Moines Register for a response, police spokesperson Sgt. Paul Parizek said the city prohibits police from commenting on pending litigation.

The Iowa Attorney General's Office reviewed the shooting and in January declared the officers "acted with legal justification." Woods' suit, however, contends that her son, Trevontay Jenkins, identified in the suit only by his initials, T.J., never pointed a gun at the officers, as they maintained.

Lawrence Hyman, one of Woods' attorneys, told the Register the evidence against the officers named as defendants in the suit, Thomas Garcia, Noah Bollinger and Zachary Duitscher, includes their bodycam video, which the city has refused to publicly release.

The Iowa Public Information Board turned down an appeal of that decision.

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Lawsuit contends teen never pointed a gun at officers

The suit says the events leading to the shooting began about 12:27 a.m. Dec. 26, 2022, when T.J.'s stepfather, Curtis Woods, called 911 to report that the boy was standing outside his apartment in a complex at 400 E. McKinley Ave. with a handgun and had pointed it at him.

Officers dispatched to the scene saw T.J. outside a nearby building, then saw him enter one of the apartments, the suit says. Garcia and Bollinger ran into the apartment with their guns drawn and shouted repeatedly for the boy to put down his gun, it says.

Duitscher then broke through a sliding-glass back door to the apartment, the suit says, and was followed by another officer, Nicholas Howard, who was not named as a defendant.

The suit says Garcia, Bollinger and Duitscher moved to within three to six feet of the startled T.J., shouting for him to drop the weapon, shined lights on him from several directions and pointed their guns at him.

T.J.'s older brother, Brandon Tukes, 23, had been killed the previous month in a shooting in a Phoenix suburb. The suit says that during the encounter with police, T.J. "made rambling comments" about Tukes' death, said "I wanna die" and then pulled out his cellphone and appeared to look at it.

It says he also told the officers he would put the gun down if they would turn off the lights they were pointing at him.

It also says he looked at Bollinger and told him, "I know you … I can talk to you."

Bollinger began a conversation with T.J. while the other officers continued shouting at him to drop the gun, the suit says. The boy then looked at the phone in his left hand, it says, and began raising the gun with his right hand toward his head.

The suit says the gun was pointed to T.J.'s left and at no time was it pointed in the direction of any of the officers. It says the boy was looking at his phone, not the officers, and did not have his finger on the trigger.

"At the point in which T.J.’s arm was parallel to the ground across his stomach, defendant Duitscher fired two shots at T.J., causing him to double over, fall to the ground and drop his handgun," it says.

Bollinger and Garcia also opened fire, the suit says, "riddling his body with bullets that struck him in the face, neck, shoulders, chest, arm, back, thigh, and hand."

"The acts of shooting T.J. were a reckless, unjustified and unlawful use of deadly force by the defendants, which was a violation of his Fourth Amendment constitution rights," the suit says.

The Iowa Attorney General's office, led by Attorney General Brenna Bird, based its ruling in January on interviews with the three officers who fired at the boy, other witnesses and a review of the officers' body camera video. The report says the officers negotiated with the 16-year-old for 4 minutes, 20 seconds to drop the weapon. They and family members asked Jenkins more than 70 times to put down the gun and surrender peacefully, but he did not comply, it said. The report said the teenager told the officers he would keep the gun, and raised it above his waist three times during the confrontation.

De-escalation training, supervision of officers inadequate, suit says

Woods' lawsuit additionally alleges that despite publishing a general order establishing guidelines in 2018 for de-escalation before using force, the police department and Wingert failed to adequately train officers in the techniques.

It adds that the department's "failure to adequately supervise its officers in de-escalation techniques have contributed to the continued use of unlawful deadly force by the Des Moines Police Department in violation of the constitution(al) rights of its residents, including T.J."

The suit asks the court to grant Woods "actual, compensatory, consequential and all other allowable damages," but does not specify a dollar amount.

No trial date has been set.

Another of Woods' sons, Bravon Tukes, 19, was acquitted in October of charges of first-degree murder, attempted murder and criminal gang participation in connection with the killings of two students at a downtown Des Moines alternative school and the wounding of the school's founder.

Prosecutors alleged he had helped plan the attack and acted as getaway driver for gunman Preston Walls, 18.

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Tried separately, Walls was convicted of second-degree murder and manslaughter in the killings of Gionni Dameron, 18, and Rashad Carr, 16.

He also was found guilty of willful injury causing serious injury in the wounding of school founder Will Holmes, also known as Will Keeps, who had attempted to escort him out of the school.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Mother files lawsuit in Des Moines police killing of Trevontay Jenkins