CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A wrongful death lawsuit filed Wednesday against the City of Charlotte and two Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officers claims officers were negligent in the fatal 2017 shooting of a Spanish-speaking man in Charlotte.
The lawsuit claims officers David Guerra and Courtney Suggs were negligent in approaching Rueben Galindo without waiting for a Spanish translator.
Galindo had called 911 saying he had a gun and requested a Spanish-speaking officer, earlier reports state.
When officers arrived on September 6th, 2017, they found Galindo and said he was armed. The officers said they issued multiple commands for Galindo to drop his weapon. When he refused to drop the weapon, officers perceived an imminent threat and shot him, CMPD Chief Kerr Putney said after the incident.
Galindo stated that he had been consuming alcohol and gave conflicting statements concerning whether he had also taken drugs during his 911 call conversation with the Spanish speaking interpreter.
NBC Charlotte obtained dispatch audio of the moments before and after the shooting.
As officers were heading to the Hunters Pointe apartment complex, a dispatcher can be heard saying, "any Spanish-speaking officer that could assist North Tryon on an armed person call?"
According to the lawsuit, Officer Guerra gave Galindo commands in English despite knowing he spoke Spanish. Prior 911 calls had shown Galindo was not speaking English with dispatchers, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit said the city was also negligent for improperly training the officers in use of deadly force without giving time to the command “drop the weapon.”
Following the shooting, an NBC Charlotte Defenders investigation found there was only one bilingual officer for every 1,700 Hispanic people in Mecklenburg County. At the time, CMPD said 75 out of 1,800 officers are bilingual, which is roughly four percent. Hispanics made up 13 percent of the population in Mecklenburg County according to census estimates.
The Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office cleared the officers of criminal wrongdoing. The District Attorney determined Galindo was mentally unstable, impaired and failed to obey officer commands.
NBC Charlotte reached out to the city for comment about the lawsuit and received this statement:
"The City is in receipt of this lawsuit. We will respond to the allegations through the judicial process and will have no further comment at this time."