SELIMAJ DEATH:

Judge OKs suit over death of ice cream truck driver shot by police

Family of woman shot by Henderson police allowed to pursue wrongful death lawsuit

Friday, Feb. 20, 2009 | 8:50 a.m.

HEATHER CORY / Home News

Zyber Selimaj reacts to the coroner’s inquest ruling that a Henderson Police officer was justified in shooting and killing his wife, Deshira. Misdemeanor charges against him, including obstructing an officer, have been dropped.

The Death of Deshira Selimaj

A federal judge has allowed the husband and children of Deshira Selimaj to proceed with a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Henderson over the incident in which the ice cream truck driver was shot and killed by police who said she threatened them with a knife, rejecting arguments by the city that the allegations are frivolous.

U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks on Feb. 11 ruled Zyber Selimaj, husband of Deshira, and their children could amend and proceed with their lawsuit originally filed in April 2008.

Attorney Peter Angulo, who has been representing the city in the litigation, could not immediately be reached for comment today on the allegations in the amended complaint.

The original suit was aimed at forcing the Henderson Police Department and Clark County to turn over evidence to Zyber Selimaj that he could use in the coroner's inquest into the shooting. His request for access to evidence was rejected. The coroner's jury in April found the Feb. 12, 2008, shooting by officer Luke Morrison to be justified after Morrison and other officers testified Deshira Selimaj threatened them with the knife.

Zyber Selimaj, originally represented by attorneys James Jimmerson and Mario Lovato, later switched attorneys and is now represented by Michael Cristalli and Marc Saggese.

On June 26 the new attorneys sought permission to amend the lawsuit to include wrongful death claims against the city — an effort that city attorneys fought in court on both procedural grounds and on grounds that the wrongful death claims lacked merit.

Hicks' ruling last week said: "Defendants argue that the amended complaint's allegations are frivolous, and therefore amendment would be futile. This argument is without merit. The amended complaint alleges that an officer of the Henderson Police Department shot and killed Deshira Selimaj without justification (raising civil rights claims). These allegations are not frivolous.''

The amended complaint alleges the civil rights of the family were violated when Deshira Selimaj was shot and killed after she came to the aid of her husband, also an ice cream truck driver who had been stopped for a traffic violation.

The complaint alleges negligence, inadequate training and supervision of police offers, that Zyber Selimaj was assaulted and falsely imprisoned by police and that after the shooting the police falsified their accounts of what happened in order to cover up information unfavorable to them.

The suit seeks at least $25 million in damages for its federal claims and at least $20,000 for state claims. Included is a request for punitive damages in order to punish the officers involved in the incident.

"The decedant posed no threat to any officer or anyone else at the time she was shot by police officers. At the time the defendant officers shot Deshira, they had no reasonable basis to believe that there existed any conditions necessary for utilizing deadly force against the decedent,'' the lawsuit claims.

Discussion: 20 comments so far…

By lasvegasbk

2/20/09 at 10:25 a.m.

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So how many times have you been pulled over and your wife or husband shows up and wants to start an argument with the officer because they are writing you a ticket ? Makes no since whatsoever why the lady even showed up because her husband can't defend himself. So now it is time for the poor family to milk the system and take home some big paycheck and move back to there home country as millionaires.
By donaldcfi

2/20/09 at 10:46 a.m.

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I agree with lasvegasbk. There is no reason for your spouse to show up at all. I am having some trouble though. I cannot make up my mind. Which Munster is this? Herman or Eddie?
By 2zero

2/20/09 at 11:08 a.m.

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What does not make sense is how/why Henderson cops, young strong men could not deal with these two pathetic ice cream peddlers without shooting the poor women in front of her child!!!

Don't give me that crap she had a knife, I do not care if she had an ax....she was no threat to a trained law enforcement officer.
By LasVegas2009

2/20/09 at 11:14 a.m.

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They should have used a net like batman. These police are always saying that a Tazer is needed, then why not use it? They have lots of non-lethal alternatives but chose to kill her instead. This was a decision because none of them shot her in the leg or arm. A shot in the head because you disagree with a ticket is just plain stupid. I say take the guns away from the police if they cant show some kind of control. I mean they could have used a water hose or any of thousands of non-lethal weapons to disarm her. Its a middle aged woman for gods sake just kick her a$$ but dont kill her.
By 2zero

2/20/09 at 11:20 a.m.

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I smart cop could have taken off his shoe and used his tube sock to disarm this 100 lb threat!
By LVBear

2/20/09 at 11:33 a.m.

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I am ashamed to admit that I am a resident of Henderson. This senseless police killing is another embarrassment to our community, and to the entire region. Though my tax dollars will go towards paying the eventual verdict, it will be money well spent if the trigger-happy punks who pretend to be police officers learn something from it. Real cops could and would have disarmed this woman in seconds with no one getting hurt. The cowardly sissies on our department all apparently stood around doing nothing until Morrison decided to execute this woman. Shame, shame, shame.
By captainamerica

2/20/09 at 11:58 a.m.

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To bad the coroners inquest is unjust and inadequate. If all the witnesses had been called and all the evidence presented, we would know what really happened. It is unfortunate that it takes a civil suit to get the truth. Certainly Luke Morrison served with honor while in Iraq or he would have never been hired by the police Dept. Maybe hiring combat veterans for police is a bad idea.
By 2zero

2/20/09 at 12:12 p.m.

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captainamerica...you are right. The post office is where these highly trained killers should be employed; it worked after the last pointless war.
By LasVegas2009

2/20/09 at 12:25 p.m.

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I have to agree with the post office statement. We dont need to take combat trained troops and put them in a police uniform with weapons. Combat and our city streets are two different worlds and should not be mixed. The post office is a much better place to place these trained killers until we need them to kill some more.
By getalife

2/20/09 at 3:53 p.m.

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2zero and LasVegas2009,

You obviously have no clue how police officers are trained or what they do in a given day.

Contrary to your stupid remarks, just because somebody is in the military that doesn't mean they are killing auto-matons.

Final point, police officer training involves dealing with knife weilding suspects. This demonstration clearly illustrates how fast a person with a knife can close on the officer and how that officer can protect himself.

BTW don't bring a knife to a gun fight.
By redferret

2/20/09 at 3:59 p.m.

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amen getalife.

Also I heard that they shot the lady with Tazers, but that both prongs didn't hit (therefore no shock). Was this bad? Yeah
Should she have threatened officers or herself or her children with a knife? No. And by the way I heard it was a large chef's knife, not some rinky-dinky pocket knife.
This was bad all around, but why did she have to escalate the situation by bringing out a knife?
By afveteran

2/20/09 at 6:39 p.m.

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This incident has been investigated, and a conclusion reached by the inquest system in Nevada. This lawsuit is frivolous and consumes more of the tax payer's money (it's a federal lawsuit), than if the ambulance-chasing lawyer for the family had filed in state court.
By dapperdoog

2/20/09 at 7:06 p.m.

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The saddest thing about this tragedy was the response to my long ago post that-"How could a healthy young police officer with Iraq "war" experience wearing a kevlar vest have felt threatened by a 100 lb lady?" The pathetic response by a fellow "No Snitch" officer was "I hope you realize that a kevlar vest will not stop a knife penetration".

Dear God, is this the backbone possessed by our soldiers we send to defend our country? If your shorts turn brown and you use the ultimate weapon on a little lady, how can we think that your type can defend us against Taliban fighters who defeated the Russians in the 90's? Morrison, you make me sick-I hope your wife doesn't raise her voice tonight...
By getalife

2/20/09 at 7:35 p.m.

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dapperdoog,

You speak to that which you probably do not know.

Your comment about our troops is stupid at best and repugnant no matter what.
By Angel3Home

2/20/09 at 8:50 p.m.

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Its really sad to see the man who lost his wife and house and car, hes more suffering go thru to help his kids to recovery from seeing thier mom killed by the police. Police should use the laser gun instead of gun. I can imange if we are hearing impaired and we may act little wild(sign language)due by poor communication, I probably will wave the stick or pen or soemthing, will the police shot me becasue of wild behavior?? I think the man is more deserve to get the money to make the kids happy and put the good memories of thier mom in grave. Polices needs to use laser if anyone use stick or knife or anything instead of gun. If i wave the gun, make sense police has a right to shot me.
By Angel3Home

2/20/09 at 9:04 p.m.

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we are ashamed to admit that I am a resident of Henderson. We hope the system is getting improve and use laser more often than gun. The lady is not harm, it was her small mistake carry the knife but police should not shot her front of the kids which is very sad. I assume theres few policemen at the scene, they had a chance to jump on the lady instead of shot her... to prevent more misunderstand. Now theyre more realaized the man can not sign the ticket becasue he doesnot know how to write his last name spell.
By donaldcfi

2/21/09 at 9:14 a.m.

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There are alot of interesting discussion items here. I think a taser was used, it just didn't stick. Nobody has answered my question though. Which Munster is this?
By azsk8fan

2/21/09 at 9:39 a.m.

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Classic example of why people who choose to live and work in this country need to learn English - the man, if he could have understood English better might not have had to have his wife show up to act as his interpretor. I agree that he just wants to milk the system - if he wins I hope he DOES get the hell out of dodge.
By Doubletrouble

2/21/09 at 10:24 a.m.

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This is just another example of how broken our system is on two sides. First of all it is rediculous that the police are trained to kill when it comes down to a woman having a bad day and doing something stupid. Everything has to be taken to the extreme. If they wouldn't have killed the lady then she would have ended up in prison for twenty years so the tax payers still lose. Second of all it is plain crazy that we entertain the idea of paying millions of dollars for wrongful death. People die in different ways all the time and don't get paid. I would love to take a bullet if my family would get twenty five million. Once again it all has to go to the extreme. And sure everyone should know english but we are about fourty years to late to start that campain.
By dan2548

2/22/09 at 7:46 a.m.

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Why do cops carry a baton, pepper spray, and maybe a taser. All they ever need is their gun. Real cops in real cities will at least attempt to disarm, or subdue an armed assailant, unless the assailant fires a weapon at them of course. I have to admit, I was not there, but a highly trained, and highly paid cop should be able to disarm or subdue a 100 pound woman with a knife, but that is just my opinion.