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Mother of Dsm teen shot & killed by police is suing the officers & city

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December 23rd, 2023 by Ric Hanson

(Des Moines, Iowa/KCCI] – The mother of a Des Moines teen who was shot and killed by police officers in December 2022 is suing the city and police department. Trevontay Jenkins, who was 16 at the time, was shot and killed by police on Dec. 26, 2022. Officers had been called to an apartment on East McKinley Avenue in Des Moines early Dec. 26 and found Jenkins armed along with other family members, according to previous reporting.

During de-escalation efforts, police say Jenkins raised his gun in the direction of officers, prompting three of the four responding officers to fire their weapons. Jenkins later died at a Des Moines hospital.

Monica Woods, Jenkins’ mother, filed a civil rights lawsuit Friday against the city and the individual police officers involved. The lawsuit claims Jenkins was not pointing the gun in the direction of any officers when they fired shots at him, and that Des Moines did not adequately train its officers in de-escalation techniques.

The Iowa Attorney General’s office previously announced the shooting was justified and the four officers involved would not be criminally charged.