Atlanta Police slapped with civil lawsuit in Bernard Moore’s death

• Max Blau
• Keshanna Spencer, holding her child in her arms, discusses why her family chose to sue the city over her father’s death.

Keshanna Spencer’s two-hour drive from Moody, Ala., to Atlanta used to be filled with excitement. For years, she would regularly travel from her home to visit her 62-year-old father Bernard Moore. That feeling of anticipation has given way to anguish following Moore’s death at the hands of Atlanta Police.

“This will be my first Father’s Day without him,” says Spencer, who was holding her baby boy, Noah, as she fought back tears inside the Davis Bozeman Law Firm this morning. “It’s just really difficult. Every time I get on I-20 and head to Atlanta...to go there, and not be able to see him, is just really hard.”

More than two months after an http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/officer-hits-man-car-southwest-atlanta/nkQQK/|APD patrol car fatally struck Moore], his family today filed a civil lawsuit against the city. Spencer, one of Moore’s two children and the administrator of his estate, is asking for $5 million in damages stemming from her father’s wrongful death.

Around 9:30 p.m. on March 6, Moore started to cross Metropolitan Parkway near Fair Drive, less than three miles from his home in Peoplestown. APD Officer Christopher Blaise, who was allegedly speeding northbound on the four-lane road without his sirens on or lights flashing, struck Moore with his patrol car. Moore later died at Grady Memorial Hospital from injuries sustained in the accident.

According to the lawsuit, Blaise was negligently speeding, driving too fast for conditions, and recklessly driving, among other offenses. Robert Bozeman, an attorney representing Moore’s family, today said Blaise was likely “traveling almost twice the legal speed limit” of 35 miles per hour based on obtained surveillance footage and an accident reconstruction expert’s findings.

APD Chief George Turner has not met with the Moore family despite their requests. At the Atlanta City Council Public Safety Committee meeting two weeks ago, civil rights attorney Mawuli “Mel” Davis says, several councilmembers were “very sincere in their condolences” expressed to Moore’s son, Bernardo Hicks. Two APD officers also privately extended their condolences to Hicks after he spoke about his father’s death.

Hicks says the APD police report contradicts the series of events captured on video surveillance. According to the police report, Moore “rolled onto the hood smashing the windshield” following the initial impact. Soon after, Blaise came to a “controlled stop” where Moore fell to the sidewalk, the report says. However, Hicks says, the video footage shows Moore “flying through the air.”

“It’s very confusing,” he says. “When you view the tape, when you view the evidence, it’s very clear. It makes no sense that you have to apply pressure to get justice. Justice should be automatic. But, as we can see, it’s not automatic. You have to fight for justice.”

The family’s questions about their father’s death remain unanswered. They hope a lawsuit will shine a light on the details surrounding his killing, explain why Blaise remains on active duty with APD, or force a public apology for his death.

“This isn’t just an ordinary car accident,” Davis says. “There’s something more to this because police are involved. Police, who were driving without lights, without sirens, and killed a citizen of the city Atlanta, should be held to a higher standard. We have not seen that adherence to a higher standard happen yet.”

According to Davis, the fact that Blaise has not been “arrested, charged, ticketed, or indicted” has forced the public to question the police department’s actions. He says the frustration over the way police are treated differently than the citizens they serve has fueled tensions surrounding police-involved deaths in Baltimore; Cleveland; and Ferguson, Mo.

APD spokeswoman Elizabeth Espy declined to comment on the civil lawsuit.