(ABC NEWS)- A 15-year-old who died last year after crashing an ATV was first shot by a state trooper’s stun gun.
Damon Grimes died Aug. 26 following a Michigan State Police pursuit that ensued at around 5:30 p.m. near Rossini Drive and Gratiot Avenue.
An ambulance arrived a few minutes after the crash and transported Grimes to St. John’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Bessner, who allegedly fired his stun gun at Grimes from the passenger window of a squad car, resigned from the force in October and is the subject of a federal lawsuit from Grimes’ family alleging use of excessive force and gross negligence.
MSP Trooper Ethan Berger, who was driving the patrol vehicle, is also being sued.
Geoffrey Fieger, an attorney for the Grimes family, told ABC News that Bessner and Berger “killed [Grimes] whey they shot him with a Taser and electrocuted him and he ran into another vehicle and broke his neck.”
“It was a drive-by shooting by Michigan state police that killed a child driving an ATV,” he said. “They were doing it for sport.”
The 25 hours of footage released to WXYZ does not include dashcam footage of the pursuit by Bessner or Berger, the station reported.
In December, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office charged Bessner with second-degree murder and multiple counts of involuntary manslaughter.
He has pleaded not guilty. His jury trial is scheduled to begin on Aug. 20, a Wayne County prosecutor’s spokeswoman confirmed. Berger is not facing criminal charges.
