A lawsuit has been filed against the Issaquah police for using excessive force which caused the death of a Chinese immigrant. 66-year-old Wang Shen Leng suffered a broken neck after he was arrested in August 2018. He died a month later from complications from the injuries, reports KIRO 7.

On August 5, 2018, police received a noise complaint from the building Wang Shen Leng and his wife Liping Yang was staying in. Police thought it was a domestic abuse call when they went into Wang Shen Leng’s apartment. The two officers reported they, “observed that Mr. Leng was holding his wife from behind. The door began to close, potentially keeping the officers from investigating further. The officers then entered the residence to further investigate the possible domestic violence situation, and separate the parties.” according to the Issaquah Reporter.

The lawsuit claims that the officers threw Leng to the couch and tried to handcuff him behind his back. After the officers put the handcuffs on Leng he went limp. According to the lawsuit, the force broke Leng’s neck, compressed his spine and broke his cervical spine. “The police proceeded to come in, to separate the two, and to force Mr. Leng down onto the couch-pushing on his neck in such a way that it ended up breaking his neck,” Harry Williams, a lawyer for the Leng family said, reports KIRO 7.

A statement by the city said that Leng was resisting and that officers moved him to the couch safely.

According to the lawsuit, the King County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the death a homicide. The examiner said it was “aspiration pneumonia due to post-traumatic syringomyelia cervical spinal cord that was due to blunt force injury of the neck.”

The couple, Wang Shen Leng and his wife Liping Yang, moved to Issaquah, Washington from China in 2010 to retire. They spoke little English and Leng was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. The officers did not know of Leng’s sickness. The lawyer representing Liping Yang, David B. Owens, said that there was no history of domestic violence between the two.

The lawsuit claims that the officers did not have a warrant or probable cause to enter the building. And instead of trying to understand and deescalate the situation, they resorted to grabbing Leng. “Doing so was unjustified. Mr. Leng had not committed any crime or done anything unlawful; he had merely walked around his apartment while speaking his native language, which the officers did not understand,” the lawsuit said.

The city has a language line officers can call when they need an interpreter. It is unknown if the officers called in for assistance.

When Leng went limp after the arrest the officers called for an ambulance. Leng underwent several surgeries at the hospital but died a month later on September 5, 2018.

The lawsuit brought against the two officers, Michael Lucht, 43, and Kylen Whittom, 33, and the Issaquah police, claim that the officers used excessive force and that they tried to cover it up, reports The Seattle Times. Owen’s believe the officers tried to cover it up because one of them wrote in their police report that Leng did not suffer from any injuries even though he was taken to the hospital. It is unknown if the two officers have been disciplined. Investigators are still looking over the case.

Lipang Yang is asking for monetary damages, policy changes, and new training so that this type of incident doesn’t happen again.

“I think it’s really important to understand not only that this tragedy happened, but that the Issaquah Police Department had no problem with this incident…the true tragedy that lies under the heart of this is why would two officers think this was okay to do?” Owens said. “To go and use this kind of force and cause harm to elderly people should be shocking. It’s shocking to me and the city should do something about it.”