Family Sues ISP Trooper Over Fatal Shooting
The family of Malcolm Williams, a 27-year-old man who was fatally shot by an ISP trooper, has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the trooper and other unnamed officers. The incident occurred in April 2020 when Williams was the passenger in a car stopped for a broken tail light in Jeffersonville.
According to the lawsuit, the family is alleging eight federal and state claims, including excessive force and wrongful death against the trooper, Clay Boley, and the other officers present. They argue that the officers failed to intervene and that Williams was not acting violently or posing a risk to anyone when he was shot.
The police report states that Boley suspected Williams of providing a false name and requested him to return to the car after patting him down and finding a magazine for a handgun. It is claimed that Williams pulled out a gun from the car’s glove box and aimed it at the trooper, resulting in Boley firing at him. Williams was shot six times, including four shots to his back and died at the scene.
The family disagrees with the police account of the incident. They assert that Williams informed Boley that his girlfriend, who was driving the car and nine months pregnant, had a handgun in the car and was attempting to hand it to him. The family argues that Williams was not engaging in any violent behavior and posed no threat, making the use of deadly force unnecessary.
Community members rallied to protest the shooting, joining the broader racial justice protests following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. However, there is no video footage of the incident as the ISP troopers did not use body cameras at the time, and Boley’s car did not have a dash cam.
After investigating the case, the ISP Versailles district turned its findings over to the Clark County prosecutor, who determined that Boley was justified in using deadly force and declined to press charges. The civil trial was scheduled to begin this week, but a notice of settlement was filed, and the details of the settlement were not disclosed.
