The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department is facing a lawsuit over perhaps one of the most appalling acts of police brutality in recent years: Shooting an 80-year-old man to death with a submachine gun while he lay in his own bed.

According to Reason.com, last summer deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department burst into the home of retired engineer Eugene Mallory. The department suspected Mallory of having methamphetamine, after receiving an anonymous tip.

The sheriffs found no drugs inside the property. But they did find 80-year-old Eugene Mallory in his home, which is where people often are in the early hours of the morning. And here's where things took a deadly turn for the worst.

The deputies first claimed that they ran into Mallory in the hallway of his house, where he was carrying a gun. But after the investigators found that Mallory's bed was covered with blood, they changed their story.

What is known for sure is that Mallory died when one of the officers, Sgt. John Bones, fired six shots from his MP-5 9mm submachine gun. (The question of why this sheriff was carrying a submachine gun in the middle of rural California still hasn't been answered.)

Mallory's widow now has a lawsuit pending against the department — only one of many lawsuits that the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department has fielded in recent years.