LAWSUIT FILED—Solomon Furious Worlds, staff attorney at the ACLU of Pennsylvania, Tanisha Long with the Abolitionist Law Center, McKeesport resident Courtney Thompkins, Take Action Advocacy Group CEO Fawn Walker Montgomery.
Black residents say police went way over the top during search for suspect
The New Pittsburgh Courier has learned that the ACLU of Pennsylvania has filed a lawsuit in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas against the city of McKeesport, Allegheny County, and numerous named and unnamed police officers, regarding the violation of some McKeesport residents’ Fourth Amendment rights and the Pennsylvania Constitution during a police search for a shooting suspect in December of 2020, according to a statement from the ACLU.
One of those residents is Courtney Thompkins, a Black woman who said during a news conference just steps from the McKeesport police station on Dec. 4 that officers bombarded her home, with her left to figure out why. She let them inside her home, but no one else was there. She didn’t know that a suspect was on the loose, accused of shooting a police officer, but she said it was still uncalled for— the police’s actions at her home, or stopping her partner’s vehicle before that.
“At no point did any police officer present Ms. Thompkins with a search warrant or an arrest warrant for Mr. Francis, nor did any officer articulate any basis for believing that Mr. Francis might be found in her home. In fact, (police officers) never said they were even looking for Mr. Francis,” read the lawsuit, obtained by the Courier.
Koby Francis was eventually arrested in West Virginia, nine days after he was accused of sliding down the handcuffs that were placed on him, accessing a gun, and shooting a McKeesport police officer just outside the police station on Dec. 20, 2020. Francis was in a police vehicle prior to the shooting, but apparently was not checked for any weapons. He then fled the scene and was on the run for nine days.
Some Black residents in McKeesport then reported excessive harassment and a violation of their constitutional rights during the manhunt.
“The way the city of McKeesport and Allegheny County police officers treated Black residents in McKeesport in December of 2020 is unconscionable,” said Solomon Furious Worlds, staff attorney at the ACLU of Pennsylvania, in a release. “Due process and the constitutional right to privacy were tossed aside by police during numerous unlawful searches, making many of McKeesport’s Black residents feel like they were being terrorized by a militarized police force. Police can’t use a shooting as an excuse to just pick and choose which elements of the Constitution they want to follow.”
Take Action Advocacy Group CEO Fawn Walker Montgomery told the Courier there were roughly 10 different police agencies scouring the small town of McKeesport agitating mostly Black residents during the manhunt with excessive searches, drawing guns, etc.
“This isn’t a separate event from what happens every day around here,” Montgomery told the Courier exclusively. “This is just another example of how White supremacy shows up in our small neighborhoods. I want people to understand that these are a pattern of events that have been going on for years in McKeesport. There’s a pattern of deep corruption, racism, sexism, all the isms you can think of going on in this city and I want people to wake the ___ up.”
The ACLU said the 44-page lawsuit seeks to hold line officers and high ranking decision-makers within both the city of McKeesport and the Allegheny County police departments accountable for their unnecessary, unlawful, and unconstitutional actions by asking for compensatory damages and injunctive relief.
Montgomery’s organization, TAAG, has its own demands. It demands an independent investigation to be conducted into the officers’ behaviors; for McKeesport City Council to pass a data transparency ordinance, which would allow law enforcement data to be tracked by race, among other factors; for the McKeesport Police Department to voluntarily participate in the Allegheny County Police Review Board; and for a reduction of 10 percent or more in the McKeesport police budget. The funds can be reinvested into the community through a foundation grant program that is separate from the city of McKeesport. Montgomery said the foundation would be able to give out grants to community groups working on addressing violence, as well as provide scholarships to youth.
“An officer was shot, over 10 police departments show up in one community and they harass us for a week straight by just barging into people’s homes, searching people’s cars illegally, and Black people specifically,” voiced an angered Montgomery to the Courier after the press conference. “One cop was shot, and their response was to militarize an entire community for a week straight. There are families who would give their left arm to have that much assistance when one of their loved ones is shot. We can’t get these cops to talk to each other when we (Black people) get shot, but one of them gets shot, it’s like hell has no fury. I feel like they were sending a message to us.”
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