The family of a man shot and killed by Lansing police plans to file a civil rights lawsuit against the department.
33-year-old Stephen Romero was fatally shot Dec. 1 after he was confronted by officers investigating a domestic violence call near the 1600 block of Massachusetts Avenue. According to his family’s legal team, officers fired 14 times at Romero with at least six rounds striking his body.
Romero family attorneys claim complete, unredacted footage of the shooting has not been shown to relatives or their legal team.
“I don’t see the transparency,” said James Harrington with the firm Fieger Law. “How can you gain the trust of the community when you refuse to show what happened when you kill a member of our community? That’s not okay."
The Lansing Police Department Lansing released a nearly eight-minute video of the events leading to the incident, including audio from three emergency calls and body camera footage from two of the officers responding.
“This incident was originally reported as a physical domestic assault between a husband and a wife that escalated to gunfire and the report of an involved female being shot while officers were on route to the scene,” said Lansing Police Chief Ellery Sosebee during his narration of the video.
The 911 calls came from Romero’s spouse, a neighbor and a child who was in the home during the incident. No other injuries were reported at the scene.
As shown in the officers’ body worn camera footage, officers run with firearms drawn to a residential driveway, where they approach Romero near the driver’s side of a parked vehicle. Someone shouts “show me your hands,” and Romero places some items on the ground and kneels with both hands raised.
Romero then reaches across his body to his shirt with his left hand, showing a pistol tucked into the right-side of his waistband. He then moves his right hand towards the weapon and the video ends. Sosebee claims Romero’s hand was on the weapon before officers fired upon him.
In the aftermath of the fatal shooting, Harrington said he and family members were called to view footage of the incident, describing the department’s invitation as a “very common” practice. He expressed frustration that they were shown a modified version of the encounter, similar to the one presented to the public.
“This is the first time I’ve ever had a police department invite me… and then show me some type of edited, narrated, redacted version of something and not shown the video,” said Harrington. “This is rare.”
Harrington said from what he’s observed, officers did not follow department protocols to avoid use-of-force, warranting a civil rights complaint.
“This was a situation where you had a compliant individual. Had they deescalated, it would have never resulted in the fatal shooting of Stephen Romero.”
Harrington said his team is still reviewing the facts of the case before attorneys enter an official legal action. He did not indicate a timeline for submitting a lawsuit and did not state their demand for damages.
Two Lansing police officers, Donovan Moore and Jeff Kurtz, have been placed on paid administrative leave while the Michigan State Police investigate the fatal shooting.
