Family Files Lawsuit Against Troy Police Officers From 2017 Incident
A Pike County family is suing five former and current officers of Troy Police Department for damages, resulting from a 2017 incident.
It was a story that gained national attention. Ulysses Wilkerson and his mother Angela Williams are seeking recovery of medical costs they say resulted from Wilkerson being beaten by the officers. Wilkerson was 17-years-old at the time of the incident.
The lawsuit was announced at the McPhillips Shinbaum Law Offices in downtown Montgomery Monday.
“We are pursuing this case on behalf of a very unfortunate young man who was beaten to a pulp- broken bones all around his face,” Attorney Julian McPhillips said.
The family says Wilkerson was walking in downtown Troy in December 2017, when several police officers got out of their patrol cars and pursued Wilkerson. According to the family, Wilkerson did not resist arrest and was not armed. They say the officers threw the teenager down and beat him, leaving him bruised and bloodied.
“We have reason to believe that the ones who are named in this suit were at least present. And some did the kicking or the hitting,” McPhillips said.
Williams is asking for the recovery of medical costs and damages. She’s also asking that all video from dash and body cam be released.
“Stonewall, stonewall, stonewall by the Troy law enforcement community, including the Troy policemen. They don’t want us to see it. Well, there must be something they don’t want us to see, can’t you see? Why would they be stonewalling. If they were transparent, and could show us ‘look, he was causing it all, fighting it all’, then we probably would have never pursued this case,” McPhillips said.
Officials have said Wilkerson fled from police and refused to comply to their demands. Police said Wilkerson reached into his waistband, which gave the appearance he could have a weapon. The officers then had to use physical force to detain him.
Mcphillips says the attorneys representing the officers have not responded.
“I’m fighting for all mothers who have to go throw this, because if we stop it now, we won’t have to worry that they’re doing it to somebody else,” Williams said.
A grand jury decided in 2018 not to charge the police officers involved in the incident.
We reached out to the Troy Police Department about Monday’s lawsuit. The police chief said”no comment.”
Wilkerson is currently behind bars on capital murder charges of an unrelated incident. He was charged in the shooting death of a Decatur man earlier this year.
He is being held in the Morgan County jail without bond.
