Family Of Fallen Officer Wants Jury To Hold Police Responsible
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Shot 20 times by fellow officers. Now the family of a Baltimore City police officer asks a jury to hold the police department responsible for his death.
Derek Valcourt spoke with family members of the fallen officer about the justice they are seeking.
Attorneys for the family of the fallen officer are trying to convince the jury that the officers who shot him acted recklessly. The other side is trying to convince the jury that despite the tragic results, officers followed their training and were only trying to save lives.
City crime cameras captured the melee outside of the Select Lounge night club in January of 2011. That's when Officer William Torbit, dressed in plain clothes with only a badge hanging around his neck, was shot more than 20 times by fellow officers in what police labeled a terrible mistake.
"We're just seeking justice and we're seeking the truth and we want them to admit that they killed our brother," said Tiffany Clark, Torbit's sister.
Officer Torbit's family filed civil suit in Baltimore court against the police department and the four officers who shot him.
Torbit was one of several cops responding to complaints of a fight at the night club. Video shows part of a fight in which Torbit himself is knocked to the ground and assaulted.
The police investigation report indicated Torbit fired his own gun to protect himself, and, in the process, killed 22-year-old Sean Gamble. But when four other nearby officers saw Torbit in plain clothes on the ground shooting, they assumed he was a civilian and opened fire.
Also in this same civil trial, jurors will decide on lawsuits seeking damages on behalf of the family of Sean Gamble and three other women who were struck by stray bullets, but survived.
Officer Torbit's family says they're still frustrated the four officers were never criminally charged.
"He was a human being first and foremost. He was someone's child; he was someone's family member," Clark said. "So yes, he should have justice. Someone should stand for his murder."
The entire incident led to reforms in the police department, including preventing plain clothes officers from responding to crowd control incidents.
The sheer volume of evidence and the large number of witnesses has attorneys expecting the case could last four to six weeks.
It will be up to a jury of six to determine how much money, if any, the gunshot victims and their families are owed.
