Victim's Family To File $10 Million Suit Against LAPD: Black Man Shot Multiple Times while Running Away

Family members of a man fatally shot by police are expected to file a multimillion-dollar lawsuit Monday against the Los Angeles Police Department.

The man who was shot to death by officers, Maurice L. Cox Jr., was running from officers after crashing his pickup truck in the Crenshaw District.

Police shot Cox multiple times in what the family's attorney, Carl Douglas, called "contagious fire," as Cox tried to flee after his pickup struck a tree on Crenshaw Boulevard, near Slauson Avenue, on March 1. Douglas said that when officers heard other officers shooting, they opened fire as well.

NBC4 aired a grainy video made by a USC graduate student that appeared to show police shooting at Cox as he was running away.

According to police, Cox told officers to stay away or he would kill them, then pointed what appeared to be a gun at them, prompting the officers to open fire.

Cox was wounded when he began running, but police continued to shoot at him, endangering others in the area, Douglas told NBC4. He said the "gun" turned out to be a cigarette lighter power adapter, which was recovered at the scene. [MORE]