MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The family of Ismael Lopez, the man shot to death by police in Southaven, Mississippi on July 23, is asking the Justice Department to investigate the case.
Attorney Murray Wells sent a letter to Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions on Friday complaining of improper behavior by Southaven’s police department.
In it, he says that Southaven has not yet named the officers or offered condolences to the family, and that the incident report lists Lopez as an offender and a Caucasian, when he was neither.
“We believe this to be intentional and an effort to shift blame to a man who was sleeping in his bed, with his wife, when the Southaven Police Department trespassed upon his property without any legal authority or purpose … we believe the outrageous nature of this death should prompt immediate and thorough investigation and as such, request the Justice Department become immediately involved,” the letter stated.
Southaven officers were supposed to pick up a suspect at an address across the street when they arrived at the wrong house and fatally shot Lopez.
Attorneys have said he was shot in the head through a closed door.
Police have maintained Lopez had a weapon visible when he cracked the door.
