DALLAS — The family of a man fatally shot by Dallas police last summer have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the officers, the Dallas Police Department and the City of Dallas.
Dail's family argues the officers used excessive and illegal force against the man, 30-year-old Kyle Dail, resulting in his wrongful death.
“DPD violated a host of provisions that led to Kyle’s death," the family's attorney, Justin Moore, said in a statement. "On top of that, they deployed officers who were woefully undertrained to participate in this type of police practice."
Moore said it's unfortunate DPD has avoided holding themselves and the involved officers accountable for what happened to Dail.
"This Civil Rights lawsuit is an attempt made by Kyle’s family to find the justice that the City of Dallas and Dallas County have avoided aiding in retrieving, even though it is what the Dail family is owed," Moore concluded in the statement.
The officers being sued in the case are Thomas Hoffman, Noah Hemm and Michael Piering.
Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia said at the time of the shooting that an undercover officer saw the 30-year-old making multiple hand-to-hand drug sales. Garcia said the officer followed Dail, who took off in a Nissan Versa.
The officer, Garcia said, saw a traffic violation and tried to stop the vehicle, but the driver didn't stop.
Later that night, Dail returned to the gas station, where an officer recognized him as the suspect who refused to stop for police, according to Garcia.
Officers approached Dail from behind and attempted to arrest him. The suit states surveillance footage shows the officers approaching Dail from behind, and fail to announce themselves to him.
"What is shown on camera is Kyle at the back of the convenience store getting a soft drink and putting a shirt on, while not posing a threat to anyone," the suit reads. "As Kyle was pulling the shirt over his head, he was in a defenseless position. This was when the three defendants accosted Kyle."
The suit states Dail was clearly startled when the officers grabbed him and that they continued to ram his head into a soft drink dispenser and spray him with MACE. It further details that Dail attempted to comply with the officers' commands, but that one of them began punching him needlessly.
"Kyle continued to verbalize his wish for the defendants to allow him to comply, but the officers only escalated tensions further," the suit states.
The suit states security footage shows Dail throw a gun from his pocket out of frame of the camera as the struggle continued. After it was tossed, the suit adds you can hear an officer yell "gun" on camera.
"[A]fter the firearm was tossed several seconds pass and then you see Kyle be shot while he was unarmed," the suit reads. "It was ultimately determined that the officer who shot Kyle was Defendant officer Hoffman. None of the other officers pulled their firearms and fired at Kyle."
Dail died the next day.
The suit states each of the three officers had less than five years of service at the time of the shooting. Each had completed a combine 10,723 hours of training at the time, only four of which were committed to training for racial profiling, another four were committed to anti-bias training, three were committed to implicit bias training and 28 were committed to learning de-escalation techniques.
"By using deadly and excessive force described in this petition when it was not objectively reasonable to do so, Defendants Hemm, Hoffman, and Piering deprived Kyle Dail of his constitutionally protected right of life and liberty without due process of law," the suit argues.
The suit is asking for relief in the form of compensatory, special and punitive damages and declaratory relief that the defendants violated Dail's rights under the Constitution.
WFAA reached out to the Dallas Police Department for comment, but DPD Public Information Officer Snr. Cpl. Brian Martinez said the department does not comment on pending litigation.
"The SIU investigation has been sent to the District Attorney’s Office," Martinez stated. "The IAD investigation is suspended pending the outcome of the Grand Jury."