Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed Against Mississippi Teens in Killing of Black Man
“Mississippi attorney Winston J. Thompson III, in cooperation with the Southern Poverty Law Center, filed a wrongful death lawsuit today on behalf of the family of a black man who was viciously beaten in a motel parking lot and then fatally run over.
The civil lawsuit accuses seven white teenagers of deliberately setting out in the early morning hours of June 26 to go to Jackson to ‘go f—k with some n——rs.’ James C. Anderson was in a motel parking lot in Jackson when he was attacked. During the attack, one of his attackers shouted, ‘White power!,’ according to the lawsuit.
After the beating, the lawsuit alleges, one of the teens drove an Ford F-250 pickup truck over a street curb, striking and killing Anderson. The alleged driver of the truck, Deryl Dedmon Jr., reportedly told the other teens that he ‘ran that n——r over.’ None of the teens named in the lawsuit attempted to stop the attack, call police or seek medical help for Anderson, the suit claims.
Filed in the Circuit Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County, Miss., the suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages on behalf of Anderson’s family.
Video of the attack, including footage of Anderson being hit by the truck, was captured by a motel security camera and broadcast by CNN earlier this year.
‘The whole world saw the brutal attack that James Anderson suffered at the hands of people who simply wanted to hurt someone of a different race,’ said Thompson of the Cochran Firm’s Jackson office. ‘We cannot ignore such cold-hearted cruelty.’”