01-08-2025
Officer who shot D.C. teen in 2020 found liable in wrongful death suit
A D.C. police officer who killed a young Black man five years ago during an attempted arrest was not legally justified in shooting him, according to a jury that awarded the man's mother $655,000.
Deon Kay, 18, was killed in Southeast Washington on Sept. 2, 2020, by D.C. police officer Alexander Alvarez, who saw a pistol in Kay's right hand and fired from eight feet away as Kay was throwing down his weapon.
His death sparked protests from those demanding justice and decrying police violence, particularly against Black men. These demonstrations came amid nationwide protests in the summer of 2020 over the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd.
The wrongful death lawsuit was filed in 2021 in D.C. Superior Court by Natasha Kay, the mother of Deon Kay. A jury on Thursday found Alvarez was 'negligent' in the lead-up to the shooting in a way that caused it and that he committed battery against Deon Kay.
Yaida Ford, Natasha Kay's attorney, praised the eight-person jury's verdict as proof that District residents want police officers held accountable for their actions.
'People are tired of police officers getting away with unjust killings of Black people,' Ford said. 'Deon hadn't even been 18 for 30 days. … This was somebody with a future. This was somebody whose mother, whose family loved him.'
D.C. police confirmed Alvarez was still a member of D.C. police and referred questions about the verdict to the D.C. attorney general's office. Attorneys and spokespeople with office, which represented Alvarez, did not respond to requests for comment.
In court filings, attorneys for Natasha Kay argued that Alvarez 'intentionally shot and killed Deon Kay without provocation or justification as Deon Kay was attempting to surrender.'
The officer, they argued in court filings, should have realized from a live Instagram video that Kay was holding a weapon for a music video 'and did not pose a serious threat to anyone.' They argued that Alvarez should be liable for 'recklessly and negligently killing Deon,' after failing to follow police weapons and safety standards.
'Why'd he shoot me,' Deon Kay was captured saying in body-camera footage before dying, according to the complaint.
Attorneys for Alvarez denied all of these allegations in a court filing.
Federal prosecutors decided against filing criminal charges against Alvarez. The D.C. police Internal Affairs Bureau found the shooting was justified and within department policy, a finding supported by an independent review commissioned by the District's auditor, Kathleen Patterson. But that report also said police mistakes leading up to the deadly encounter unnecessarily put officers and Kay in danger.
The independent review said members of the 7th Police District Crime Suppression Team saw four young men brandishing two firearms while in a Dodge Caliber on an Instagram live video. The officers headed toward the scene in an unmarked vehicle.
They said they saw the car backed into a parking lot space at an apartment complex in Congress Heights, and a man sprinted out of the passenger seat as soon as officers pulled into the driveway.
Alvarez pursued him, running past the car, according to the audit, but stopped when he realized the man was too far ahead of him.
As he turned back toward the Caliber, he saw Deon Kay, who had exited the car and was running toward him while holding a gun.
At around the same moment Deon Kay threw his gun down an embankment, Alvarez's body-camera video shows him firing toward Deon Kay, striking him in the chest.
The report, which was written by the Bromwich Group, a consulting firm that also conducted the previous review of deaths involving D.C. police, found that Alvarez 'unnecessarily placed himself in that situation.'
It criticizes the officers for failing to develop a tactical plan before attempting to arrest the young men and for not informing their supervisors about their plans.
'When the officers came upon the Dodge, events unfolded rapidly and unpredictably — putting the officers at unnecessary risk,' according to the audit. 'Because of the way the officers proceeded, they squandered any opportunity to de-escalate the situation and limit that risk.'
Although the report found Alvarez was justified in firing his weapon, 'effective policing in the moments leading up to that split second may well have prevented that split second from arriving,' Patterson wrote in a May 2021 letter to city officials.
Federal prosecutors in November 2020 said they could not determine beyond a reasonable doubt that Alvarez committed 'willful violations' of federal criminal civil rights statutes. Prosecutors said they were unable to determine whether Kay threw his weapon deliberately or reflexively on being shot.
Ford, Natasha Kay's attorney, said the jury looked at the same evidence and reached a different conclusion.
'You can't rely on the police to police themselves. It's not going to happen. But in the court of law, it can happen,' Ford said. 'But it boils down to jury selection and making sure you get the right people on your jury. And that's what we did.'
During a September 2020 demonstration for Deon Kay, his aunt told the crowd she believes her nephew threw away his gun upon seeing police because he was scared. He had played with guns before, she said, but 'never hurt no one.'
'This ain't adding up,' his aunt, Marie Kay, said at the time. 'Justice needs to be done.'
