Wrongful death lawsuit filed in Shelby County sheriff's deputies' shooting of woman in Lakeland

Attorneys for a 59-year-old Lakeland woman have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Shelby County Sheriff's Office after she was fatally shot by deputies last year as she held a BB gun in her driveway.

The federal lawsuit was filed last week by attorney Daniel A. Seward on behalf of Nancy Jane Lewellyn's son, Jason Cunningham. The suit says Lewellyn was in a mental health crisis, and deputies shot her without warning her to drop the weapon.

Lewellyn had called 911 and made threats to kill herself or the next person she saw, according to records released following the March 17, 2017, shooting.

"Defendants (deputies) should have used alternative methods of resolving and/or de-escalating the situation," the lawsuit says. The suit seeks $10 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages.

A report written by the sheriff's office on the day of the shooting said Lewellyn ignored verbal commands to drop the gun and pointed a gun at deputies.

But dashboard video released months later by the Shelby County District Attorney's office appears to show deputies opened fire about 5 seconds after Lewellyn left a house with a BB pistol.

The videos pick up the sound of indistinct shouting, then about 10 shots. Clear commands to drop the weapon come after the shooting, when Lewellyn is lying face-down in a driveway with bullet wounds. "Put the gun down!" a deputy shouts.

Release of documents

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spent months reviewing the shooting and handed its findings to the office of Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich, who announced Feb. 1 that the office had cleared the two deputies who fired shots of any criminal wrongdoing.

"The victim made it clear that she was intent on causing deadly harm to herself or to others, and she left the deputies with no other choice but to fire their weapons," Weirich said in a statement. "This was a tragic event for everyone involved."

Weirich's office then released the TBI file in the case, posting videos, photos, audio files and interview transcripts on its web site.

The records are heavily redacted, removing the names of the deputies and others involved. The videos of the shooting blur the faces of people involved. Audio was edited to hide names.

Where the gun was pointed

A dashboard video shows Lewellyn coming out of the house and raising the weapon. The wrongful death lawsuit alleges she hadn't pointed it at anyone.

A TBI diagram of the shooting scene supports that claim.

The video shows Lewellyn pointing the weapon toward her right. But according to the diagram, the deputies and their vehicles were on her left, and that's where the shell casings from their .40-caliber pistols were found.

No verbal commands

All three deputies involved told investigators they couldn't recall giving verbal commands before the shooting, according to interview transcripts.

Tennessee law strongly recommends law enforcement officers make verbal warnings before using deadly force.

The law stops short of requiring verbal warnings, saying only the officer should do it "where feasible."

After the shooting, deputies performed first aid for several minutes before paramedics arrived.

An autopsy concluded Lewellyn had seven bullet wounds. She was pronounced dead at a hospital. The soundtrack of the videos picks up the stress in the deputies' voices as they realize how seriously Lewellyn is hurt.

"Why did she have to do that?” someone says on the video.





The 911 call

Lewellyn called 911 around noon on the day she was shot, according to a dispatch log.

“I’m — I’m gonna kill the next somebody I see,” Lewellyn tells the dispatcher.

The female dispatcher calmly asks for information about her, including her address. Lewellyn struggles to recall the name of the street where she lives, saying she moved there recently with her son.

She finally gives the correct address, on Woodland Pine Cove West, and says she's angry because she's sick and can't get medicine.

“Cirrhosis, and I’m dying. Stage 4. I have rheumatoid arthritis. I have a brain tumor. You want me to go on?”

Later in the call, she cries out in an anguished voice, “I’m in pain!” She talks about shooting herself in the head, then about shooting other people. The dispatcher tries to calm her down, but she finally hangs up.

Shots fired

The call log says that at 12:14 p.m., the dispatcher was trying to get Lewellyn back on the line.

At 12:15 p.m., according to the log, shots were fired.

Lakeland does not have a police department and the sheriff's department patrols the suburb. Three deputies arrived in separate vehicles.

One deputy, who said he didn't shoot, told an investigator he was unsure why shots were fired. He was trying to get to cover when it happened.

“That’s the only — as I was retreating I heard shots were fired. I assume she raised the gun or something. I turned my back to run back to the car.”

Another deputy said he was in a vehicle behind his partner. “I pulled up right behind him and I got out of my squad car, um, and I went ahead and drew my weapon because of the possible threat there.”

He described seeing a woman with a silver handgun. "And she walked, um, to my left as I was looking at the house towards the driveway of the residence. And I saw her raise the weapon, um, when she saw us and that's when I fired to neutralize the threat."

A third deputy said he pulled up behind the other two, saw the woman with the gun, got out and took cover. "And as I was turning to go behind my truck, I heard, um, a shot go off," he said, according to the transcript.

"And in my head, I was like, 'She's shooting at us.' And, um, the next thing I know I was behind my site, started putting rounds down range and, um, struck the subject."

In the video with the clearest view of the shooting, Lewellyn slowly goes down, face-first. The BB pistol would end up on the hood of a car, according to photos of the scene released later.

The lawsuit says when Lewellyn put the gun on the car hood, she was trying to surrender. Shots continued for a moment even after she fell.

All of this — from the moment she left the house to the moment the last shot was fired — took about 12 seconds, according to the video.

Reach reporter Daniel Connolly at 529-5296, daniel.connolly@commercialappeal.com, or on Twitter at @danielconnolly.