SACRAMENTO, Calif. — "I still think about my brother every day,” Joseph’s brother Robert Mann said. “My family still goes through trying to find some type of closure in this case."
Joseph Mann was killed in 2016 when two Sacramento Police officers shot and killed the 51-year-old Mann. Police never found a gun, but they say the mentally ill and homeless Mann had a knife and was a threat to the officers and the community. Officers fired 18 shots, hitting Mann 14 times. An investigation found the officers acted lawfully in the shooting, but both officers have since left the department.
"When someone loses a loved one, that person is injured and should have a right to justice in federal court and that is where we are going,” Mark Merin, the family attorney, said.
That federal court decision that could have national implications. Mann's father settled with the city of Sacramento, but his siblings have been barred from filing suit until now. After a lengthy back and forth in the courts, a recent decision from the 9th Circuit Federal court of appeals says their case can proceed.
"Children that grow up in the same household all their life also have a relationship, and so I think it is something the courts are looking at in-depth now,” Merin said. “I think they understand that the relationship that the siblings have with each other is just as important as the relationship that the parents have."
Merin says he has made it his mission to get justice for Joseph's family.
"There are lots of relationships that deserve protection. Fianceés…even domestic partners," Merin said. "Why shouldn't they be able to sue when a policeman kills their loved one?"
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