Erica Bailey has questions.

Why was her father's car stopped the morning of June 29? Why did two Indianapolis police officers shoot him? Why did he have to die that day?

The 26-year-old isn't the only one asking questions. She said when people ask her about the circumstances of her father's death, she doesn't have the answers they seek.

"I can’t answer those questions," Erica Bailey said. "Even if I want to, as Aaron Bailey’s daughter, I couldn’t answer none of their questions because I don’t know.

"I don’t even know why my own dad died."

Aaron Bailey, 45, was unarmed when he was shot and killed by Indianapolis Metropolitan Police officers Michal P. Dinnsen and Carlton J. Howard in the early morning of June 29. A traffic stop for unclear reasons led to a brief police pursuit before Bailey crashed his car and the fateful shots were fired.

On Wednesday, his family filed a civil lawsuit against the department and the officers. They are hoping the suit will help them get some answers, Craig R. Karpe, the family's attorney said. The proceedings will give them the chance to ask questions of the major players in the case on the record.

"We’ve attempted to do some other things regarding getting depositions done with the assistance of the city," Karpe said. "They really haven’t been working with us on that, and we really didn’t have a choice at this point but to go to the court and get the process we needed to get those testimonies taken."

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Dinnsen and Howard stopped the vehicle Bailey was driving about 1:45 a.m. near Burdsal Parkway and East Riverside Drive, police said. About 10 minutes into the traffic stop, officers say Bailey suddenly took off. A short chase ensued but ended when Bailey crashed the sedan into a fence near 23rd and Aqueduct Streets.

Both officers approached the car and fired their weapons. Bailey was taken to Eskenazi Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. His passenger, 26-year-old Shiwanda Ward, was uninjured.

It is unclear why Bailey was pulled over, why he drove away from officers and what the parties said to one another during their contact. What prompted the shooting remains unclear.

On the day Bailey died, a warrant had been issued for his arrest because he had violated the terms of his release on a pending Feb. 2 theft charge. It is unclear if the officers would have known about that warrant at the time of the traffic stop.

In an Aug. 10 news conference, Bailey's family, citing an autopsy report, said officers fired at the vehicle nearly a dozen times, striking him four times in the back.

Autopsy reports are not public record in Indiana but are provided to family members.

In the days and weeks after the shooting, IMPD Chief Bryan Roach and Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said the city would be as transparent as possible as the police department and the prosecutor's office conduct parallel investigations. At IMPD's request, the FBI opened a civil rights investigation.

Roach and Hogsett also announced a use-of-force policy overhaul following the shooting, including implementing an implicit-bias training program.

After weeks of lobbying by community members and activist groups, Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry announced last month that he was handing the case over to an outside prosecutor. St. Joseph County Prosecutor Kenneth Cotter is now leading the investigation.

Curry said he did this to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest as the office prosecutes Jason Dane Brown, who is accused of shooting and killing aSouthport Police Officer Aaron Allan in July.

Kimberly Brown, Bailey's younger sister, said it was a "relief" to hear Cotter had been appointed. It was a step in the right direction, she said.

"I thought that was the best decision that Mr. Curry has made," she said. "But it gets frustrating when you see in the news where he’s moved on to a whole other case that happened after my brother. That was a hurtful thing."

To them, Aaron Bailey is more than the investigation. He was a father, a brother. A man who lost his life too soon.

'I know he loved me'

Bailey was born and raised on the west side of Indianapolis. The third of eight children, Bailey was the "protector," Brown said.

Brown said she remembers being young and being caught out with a boy. She didn't see her brother at the time, but he found her, threatening to tell their mother where she had been.

"Aaron just materialized from nowhere," she said.

Growing up, Erica Bailey remembers laughing with her father.

"My daddy used to think I was the funniest girl in the world," she said. "Before this happened, he used to ask me why I was so goofy. I told him that I got it from him."

Erica Bailey acknowledges things weren't always perfect. She's open about her father's criminal record, that he sent to prison. He served his time, she said. But he was still a good father.

Online records indicate Aaron Bailey had been sentenced to the Indiana Department of Correction in 1996, 1999, 2003 and 2014 on a host of convictions, including operating a vehicle while intoxicated, theft, battery and resisting law enforcement. His most recent release date is listed as Feb. 15, 2016.

"He’d always send me letters," Erica Bailey said. "I know he loved me."

By June 2017, her father was trying to do right by himself and others, Erica Bailey said. He was working with Back on My Feet, a nonprofit that connects people experiencing homelessness with community resources. He volunteered at the Christ Church Cathedral Women's Strawberry Festival this year.

Now, she said, nightmares keep her awake. She has trouble eating. She gets nervous around police officers in ways she never did before her father was killed.

She gets frustrated when people question their motives for filing the lawsuit.

"People make it as a race card," she said. "Like, why’s it got to be like that when we’ve all got blood?"

Moving forward

To make his case, Karpe will have to prove that the officers' actions violated Bailey's constitutional rights. Did the shooting violate the due process afforded to him by the 14th Amendment? By taking his life, did they violate his protections against unlawful search and seizure as outlined in the Fourth Amendment?

"This is the ultimate taking," he said. "You take everything he was and everything he ever would have been."

The lawsuit, they say, isn't about the money. But, Karpe said, at this point, there is nothing else to offer.

"It’s sort of an indicator of the ineffectual nature of people that there is no adequate damages that we can bring for the death of a human being for the loss of a brother and the loss of a father," Karpe said. "And all we’re left with is dollars."

Karpe declined to discuss the bulk of the lawsuit in detail, citing the preservation of evidence and information. But he did dispute the police timeline of the incident.

Indianapolis city attorney Don Morgan declined an IndyStar reporter's request for comment on the lawsuit Thursday.

Brown said she doesn't think people consider how heavily Aaron Bailey's death weighs on the family.

"This isn’t fun," Brown said. "I wish I could go visit my brother. I wish he was right here. I wish I wasn’t talking about him in the past tense."

Nearly three months after Bailey's death, they still face many unanswered questions. And what few answers they do have don't always come easily.

"We have to explain this stuff to these children," Brown said. "I’m truthful — I tell my girls he was murdered. And it’s terrible to tell them that the police did it because that’s who they’re supposed to trust."

As difficult as it can be to process and move forward in the face of the unknown, Brown said she is going to do everything she can, even if that means suing the city and doing a hundred interviews, to ensure her brother gets justice.

"I’m going to do what I need to do for my brother, tears and all," Brown said. "If it takes tears, I’m gonna do it.”

Call IndyStar reporter Holly Hays at (317) 444-6156. Follow her on Twitter: @hollyvhays.