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Sam Morris / Las Vegas Sun
Metro crime scene investigators, officers and detectives mill about the entrance of the Costco store in Summerlin after the shooting July 10, 2010.
Published Wednesday, June 8, 2011 | 5:52 p.m.
Updated Thursday, June 9, 2011 | 7:36 p.m.
Related Document (.pdf)
Sun archives
- Judge to rule if sheriff, county will remain defendants in Costco shooting lawsuit (6-1-11)
- Former Metro officer involved in Costco shooting pleads not guilty to gun charge (5-26-11)
- Officer involved in Erik Scott shooting indicted on weapons charge (1-31-11)
- Metro officer tied to Costco shooting faces felony weapons charge (1-31-11)
- Erik Scott family drops Costco from federal lawsuit (1-20-11)
- Erik Scott family buys 4 billboard ads seeking Costco video (10-28-10)
- Police officers found justified in Erik Scott shooting; family plans lawsuit (9-28-10)
- Detective: Erik Scott had pain medicines from several doctors (9-27-10)
- Witnesses give conflicting accounts of Costco police shooting (9-25-10)
- Shoppers recount police shooting outside Costco (9-24-2010)
A federal judge today dropped Clark County as a defendant in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Costco shooting victim Erik Scott, but kept Metro Police as a defendant.
U.S. District Judge Edward Reed Jr. also retained Sheriff Doug Gillespie as a defendant in his "individual capacity" but dropped him from the lawsuit in his "official capacity" because his role in the latter duplicates the claims the family is making against Metro.
Reed also handed Scott's parents, William and Linda Scott, another victory by upholding their right to sue the defendants for alleged negligent hiring, training and supervision of police officers.
In dismissing Clark County from the lawsuit, Reed agreed with its argument that the county is not legally liable for the conduct of Metro or its employees.
At a press conference on Thursday, the family's attorney, Ross Goodman, said the ruling "basically left the entire complaint intact against Metro, Sheriff Gillespie individually and the officers."
"Basically, the whole point of naming Clark County was to hold them also accountable because we believe that, unlike other legal precedent that we raised for the first time, a novel argument suggests that the county has more responsibility, because of their involvement with the fiscal affairs committee, in the police review committee and the coroner's inquest, and that they have separate policies that exist and they should also be held accountable,” he said.
Scott, a 38-year-old medical device salesman, was shot and killed by police outside the Costco store in Summerlin last July. Police reportedly responded to a 911 call of a man with a gun destroying merchandise inside the store.
A coroner's inquest sided with police that the shooting by officers was justified, but the family disputed those findings and criticized the inquest process.
Scott's brother, Kevin Scott, initially was a plaintiff in the lawsuit but Goodman told the judge they would voluntarily dismiss him from the case. The judge agreed, noting that Kevin Scott didn't have legal standing to be a party in the lawsuit.
The family also had dropped Costco and one of its security officers, Shai Lierly, as defendants but reserved the right to sue them in state court.
"We wanted to focus on those claims in a federal court first and then, based on the investigation during discovery, will lead us to the appropriate time to refile a case involving state claims against Costco," Goodman said. "Costco is jointly to blame and will be held accountable at the right time. In state court, we will sue Costco and Shai Lierly and whoever else we deem to be responsible in the discovery."
Sun reporter Nikki Villoria contributed to this report.
This was a murder, not a justified shooting. And yet Costco claims not to have any recordings of the shameful behavior of its employees, in the phony 911 call, or the supposedly bizarre actions of the murdered Erik Scott, in the store. What an interesting case this will be, in the discovery phase, of the lawsuit. How many seconds did it take to shoot Scott down after he exited the store? How many times was he shot in the back after he went down? How many of the three gunslingers are still cops? Or unindicted on other crimes? Blame the victim, isn't that the Metro way?
Wow, a federal judge exercising some common sense! I always thought this was more of an execution than a typical Metro shooting. It's like Metro lined up outside the store, Mr. Scott was directed out, and then shot down like a dog! Now the Scott family can pursue the justice they have been looking for. Metro will have to defend Butterbean Moshers actions on this day. Gillespie needs to resign and be replaced by someone that will reign Metro in!
The claims against Metro and the Sheriff are called "Monell claims" in Federal civil rights act litigation.
The essence of a Monell claim is that the agency which employed the police officer(s) and the person in control of the police agency (e.g. sheriff or police chief) had a de-facto or actual policy directing or tolerating officers violating a victim's Federal civil rights.
The LAPD got hit with Monell claims frequently, especially under the leadership of their late Chief Darryl Gates. Some plaintiffs have succeeded in proving Monell claims against the LAPD. However, I can't recall a successful Monell claim ever being made against the Clark County Sheriff.
During the Coroner's Inquest, I didn't hear any testimony which looked like there was a viable Monell claim in this case. Then again, through discovery, the plaintiffs' lawyers might find evidence of such a policy to violate suspects' Federal civil rights.
As a result of this judge's ruling, the case will go forward, and we'll all get to hear about what sort of evidence the plaintiffs find on the Monell issues.
Personally, from the "evidence" I heard during the Coroner's Inquest, I'd be spending my time building a case against Costco rather than spending time on Monell claims.
To dipstick (Dennis):
Can you cite any law that "acting obnoxious in a public place" is deemed to be a capital offense?
Cynical...
Thanks for sharing.
That helps us "lay folk" understand the nature of this beast a little better.
This case is huge for Metro's flagging credibility with the public it serves.
No one's cared about this case since the facts came out during the inquest.
...and why not Costco? In my opinion, the Costco employee played a big part in as he made it look like Scott was about to start killing everyone, which obviously was not the case. I think the call made tremendous difference and Costco should pay for it. Just sayin'
And one more thing. If you ever met ... let's not mention name and just call him "the out of shape officer" you would know he is a trigger happy stuck up cop.
LVLawDog - The only thing that came out at the inquest was a one-sided version of the events presented by a Deputy District Attorney protecting the Metro employees. You can win any case if you present only your side. Now that the process has changed and the family of the person killed has representation, the cowards at Metro refuse to participate on the grounds they may incriminate themselves.
@Cynical Observer.
What about the Trevon Cole case where Yant has been involved in three shootings, 2 fatal, and lied on the search warrant affidavit in the Cole case, and has been disciplined for lying in an unrelated case in regards to the results of a search. Also, what about the Tanner Chamberlain case, where Derek Colling, was involved in his second fatal shooting, and has been since video taped beating another person. While I recognize that each case is a separate issue, could the whole be viewed to establish an on-going pattern of behavior, that appears to be accepted and tolerated?
@Mike V. Costco was dropped from the Federal suit, but there is still over a year before the limitations on the ability to sue runs out in state court.
@lvlawdog. In the last legislative session, Chris Collins, the president of the police union who has advised his members not to participate in the Inquest and the DA David Roger asked Reprentative John Hambrick, a retired Federal Law Enforcement Officer, to introduce legislation to get rid of the Inquest process in Clark County. This was after the committee, which included Collins and Rogers, met and made their recommendations to the County Commission. The County Commission changed the process and Collins and Rogers were unhappy with the result.
The man was stoned out of his mind. He was carrying two concealed weapons, and he was being load and threatening. I know parents don't want to think the worse about their children but time has come to face facts if he would not have been stoned on prescript drugs and carrying two hand guns the man would be alive today. End of discussion, all the family is trying to do is make the police look bad for their own sons mistakes.
Scott family wake up and realize that your son was a rich POS that did not follow the law.
@el-diablo-loco
A Federal judge has determined that there is enough doubt about the circumstances in this case to allow the lawsuit to procede. Remember what was presented at the Inquest was only one side of the story. As the late Paul Harvey used to say, "And now for the rest of the story"...
Since none of us were there, I guess we shall see what the outcome is, will be interesting I'm sure either way. Everyone should have to start out each of their comments with "In my opinion" because that's all it is, an opinion.
Well said Qwerty, well said.
This is nothing more than a shakedown of Costco. What a waste of the court's time. This case should have been dismissed by the Judge. No way will Costco settle this case ever. Nor should they.
@NVFisherman. Did you read the story. At this time, Costco is NOT part of the Federal lawsuit. No state lawsuits have been filed. How do you shakedown a company that is not being sued? The defendants in the Federal suit are the individual officers, Metro and the Sheriff.
A lot of the Media is tainted in this town when it comes to issues involving Metro. Metro, and the prominent ad man the sheriffs and cop groups hired since the days of Lamb, put a lot of pressure on cash strapped media entities when they don't toe the Metro's line.
Remember the Manor-Darling accident? One TV station, did a "ride along" with a cop the next day talking about how tough it is to be a cop living on the edge, blah, blah. .. and bragging about they got "exclusive access." Did they go out and interview the 4 or 5 witnesses that said: "no lights, no siren?" No, they along with Darling were slimmed for the most part by the press. Then two weeks later, after the funeral etc., we had the "new" statement about the accident. No lights, no siren, no belts and 109+ mph. Like the cop trailing the Manor vehicle didn't know what really happened? (What was his name by the way?) Then of course the $100k the taxpayers had to pay Darling was a story downplayed by a lot of broadcast media.
So, what does this have to do with Scott? Simple, Metro's lack of credibility.
Also keep in mind the "much heralded investigative reporter" out at one of the TV stations was part of the "pro-nuke dump duo" (along with the BIG AD MAN who managed many campaigns for Metro) as he worked for the TV station. A reporter who is hired by a pro-nuke group, still being a "reporter" on the TV? at the same time? Boy that is multitasking. Same applies to Metro. Area media people take Metro press conferences as gospel and turn them into a news story, without doing any investigation or analysis (the same way much of the media bought into Bush's WMD Iraq War fear mongering.)
Law doggie...
"No one's cared about this case since the facts came out during the inquest."
I believe you are mistaken.
When this trial starts, and when a verdict is rendered, you will see...
Also, were the police drug tested (including alcohol and steroids) after the shootings?
If a cop shot Rush Limbaugh back when he was using 100 pills a day, would that be OK, D Butcher?
(I guess he stopped? using the pills?)
It is good to challenge the police and these folks and help them to wake up. They don't have to kill so many folks. Scott was not innocent, it just seems apparent that he could have been disarmed. It is easier to kill people than help them.
All too often true justice is replaced by the illusion of justice. Expediency and the appetite for official closure eclipse most efforts to find rightfulness. Persistence and a dogged determination are critical to a proper conclusion. Although it will not bring Erik back to you, I pray you have the strength to persist and the added fortune of luck on your side.
The blame should fall on costco supervisor who failed to use his discretion in diffusing the situation. He used Metro, as his personal and business security, and escalated a mere incident or disruptive behavior into a criminal behavior and created an emergency situation giving Metro, who came with a mindset and preparedness for a "workplace shooting." This gave them a reason and rationale to kill him like a rabid dog.
"...but carrying two guns and acting obnoxious in a public place is an accident waiting to happen."
"...but time has come to face facts if he would not have been stoned on prescript drugs and carrying two hand guns the man would be alive today. End of discussion..."
dipstick, el_diablo -- neither of you were there, nor claimed to have even been at the inquest. Yet you've both posted justifying this man had to be executed on site by our sworn representatives (cops) who were there. And both of you seem to be more in favor of the lynch mob approach to this Discussion than questioning why exactly Scott had to die in our name. I welcome your clarification and future attempts to be relevant to this Discussion, particularly in light of Scott, like every one of us, had the protected liberty to keep and bear arms.
"Indifference to personal liberty is but the precursor of the State's hostility to it." -- United States v. Penn, 647 F.2d 876 (9th Circuit, 1980), Judge Kennedy dissenting
I commend the Metro police officers for justly putting down this psychotic crazy piece of wacko before he did harm to any innocent people. Regardless of what the uneducated gun toting masses in Las Vegas say, you are an asset to our community and please keep up the good work. With every scum that you put away lethally or not makes my family a little safer. Thank You.
I'm very happy for the Scott family that they will have their day in court. @lvbuilder: Scott was never a threat to anyone. If Metro hadn't chased Scott and his girlfriend down from behind as they walked to their car, they both would have gotten into their vehicle and driven away. Instead, the Metro officers at the scene escalated a non-event into a deadly shooting by giving conflicting commands at the same time.
@Floyd_M: The Scott family has already indicated that it is leaving open an action against Costco in state court (the proper venue). The Metro officers and the Costco employees offered different eyewitness accounts at the coroner's inquest in describing the tactics Metro used ambushing Scott. I'll be interested to see how the stories are reconciled at both the federal and state trials.
I do not know Eric Scott. I do not know the officers. The only facts I know are this - As simplistically put as possible. Do what you are told by the police and you will not be shot!
I have stopped vehicles with people and guns. I have stopped people with guns in their belt or pockets. I have never had to shoot anyone. Was I afraid for my life, yes! BUT THEY did what they were told to do. They lived through it!
@Gary: It would be nice to believe that you will not be shot if you do what the police tell you. But Scott appears to have been shot precisely for trying to do what an officer told him to do. Conflicting commands were caught on tape and one of the officers told Scott to "Drop It" while his gun was still in his waistband. It fairly basic police training that the suspect's actions determine the officer's reactions and that whatever you do, you never give an order to a suspect that will result in the concealment of his hand, much less force him to move his hands closer to a firearm.
@Gary.
That appears to be what Erik Scott was trying to do. Mosher, the officer who fired the first shots, gave the following sequence of commands, "Drop it, get your hands up, get on the ground, get on the ground." This was recorded on the 911 tape and took less than 7 seconds, as timed by the judge at the inquest. Mosher didn't remember giving that sequence. Mosher expected the command 'get on the ground' to be obeyed. Scott appears to have been complying with a different command issued by Mosher, as evidenced by the HOLSTERED pistol found next to his body. Given the sequence of commands by an excited officer who didn't remember giving them, which command should Erik Scott have obeyed?
SummerlinCC & Tanker:
I understand your points. Several years back, I was off duty and carrying a weapon. Poof - here are 3 police officers with drawn weapons. They are kinda spooked and one was yelling - put your hands up. one was yelling get down on the ground. I froze. I did NOT move. After several seconds, they got their sh*t together and I followed instructions. I didn't reach for my gun. I didn't get shot. The reality is NONE of us were there at Costco. All we have are opinions. We do NOT have facts!!
It will be interesting to hear Mosher explain how he wanted Scott to drop his holster from his hip without touching it or how he should put his hands up, yet still drop his holstered gun. Is it good cop work to tell someone to touch their weapon, and then shoot them for touching it?
Killer,
The right to bear arms is not absolute. Not by a long shot. If you are saying that everyone has a right to carry a firearm, then you are crazy. There has to be restrictions on some freedoms for the protection of all. Convicted felons lose that right, drug addicts lose that right and persons with mental illness are restricted from that right. The right is not absolute and if you argue that it is I think you might fall under that mental illness restriction. See the Arizona shooting of Senator Gabrielle Giffords for more information.
Cops are very trigger happy in Vegas/Henderson and they get away with murder all the time. I know this was an unjust killing. However, if you live by the gun you will die by the gun. What the F , was he doing with conceled guns in a public store in the first place? Plus being high, what an Idiot. So much for liberal gun laws. Plain and simple, guns kill, especially the innocent ! If you own a gun do us all a favor - go shoot your self!
@Gary: I agree with you that the "smart" thing would have been for Scott to just put up his hands and until the cops got their act together. I also agree with those that say Scott should not have been carrying a weapon if he was taking painkillers for his back. Scott also would not have been killed if he didn't shop at Costco that day. But none of those things caused Scott's death and contrary to the belief of some on this blog, a citizen of a democratic country does not have to prove to the government why they should live. The government can only take a human life if it is absolutely necessary and it certainly wasn't necessary in this case. In fact, the only real danger to the citizens of Las Vegas resulted from Metro's reckless escalation of the incident.
"The right to bear arms is not absolute. Not by a long shot."
johnmanrules -- where did I say that? Try reading the post before going on your next rant.
"...the enshrinement of constitutional rights necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table." District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U. S., at __ (slip op., at 64) (2008)
If lack of exercising due caution, under difficult circumstances where public safety was a paramount concern, is a major issue, what about a family that fails to act to prevent a mentally ill family member from using drugs inappropriately, and possessing firearms? An intervention and forced treatment might have prevented this.
Going to a crowded shopping area high and in an unstable mental condition, armed with two guns, is clearly an invitation for trouble. The public safety was definitely at risk, and apparently Scott did not cooperate when ordered to do so. You would think a West Point graduate would understand the need to be attendant to a police command.
Perhaps if there had been a staff of psychologists and psychiatrists, and skilled crisis negotiators on hand, all dressed in armor protection, a more finessed approach could have been attempted. Unfortunately, in the real world, when trouble abruptly occurs, the police must deal with their available resources and err on the side of protecting the public and themselves, in this case, from a gun wielding, unstable person.
If this situation had occurred at the Martin Luther King Costco, and the perpetrator was a North Las Vegas African American, high on cocaine, the matter probably would have been settled much sooner, even with expressed relief that peace had been restored with minimal loss of life.
A poster boy face with an impressive education, a proud and apparently affluent family may allow for a very different and more sympathetic reaction. I think innocent bystanders are more of concern than protecting one individual at all costs, further risking life and limb.
The family appears to be turning their anger outward, expecting us all to pay a high price for their loss. This is not about justice.