Four white police officers allegedly used excessive force on a 68-year-old black woman and her adult son after the son was wrongly accused of stealing a TV in a Missouri Sam’s Club, a new lawsuit claims.
Marvia Gray suffered “mental anguish” as well as injuries to her tailbone, back, shoulder, knees and arms when she was thrown to the ground and handcuffed March 23 inside the Des Peres store, the lawsuit filed Monday in St. Louis County alleges.
Her 43-year-old son, Derek, suffered a concussion, three shattered teeth and other injuries, the paperwork obtained by the Daily News states.
Marvia was especially traumatized during the incident because she feared for her son’s life following the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, her lawyer Andrew M. Stroth told the Associated Press.