Family of man killed during Jeffersonville traffic stop files federal lawsuit against ISP

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The family of a man shot and killed by an Indiana State Police trooper during a traffic stop in Jeffersonville last year has filed a federal lawsuit against the agency.

Malcolm Williams, 27, was shot six times and killed in an altercation during a traffic stop on April 29, 2020. Williams was the passenger in a car that was pulled over just before 1 a.m. on Middle Road near Loma Vista Court for not having working tail lights, Clark County Prosecutor Jeremy Mull said at the time.

Mull said Trooper Clay Boley became suspicious of Williams when it appeared that Williams had given Boley the identity of his brother during the traffic stop. Antoinette Webb, with whom Williams had been in a long-term relationship, was about nine months pregnant and in the driver's seat. Mull said as Boley began questioning Williams on his suspected incorrect identity, Webb began having painful contractions. Williams asked Boley to get out of the car and go to the driver-side door to comfort Webb, to which Boley agreed, but only after a full pat-down.

During that pat-down, Boley found a magazine for a semi-automatic handgun, Mull said. Williams claimed his gun was at home, and he simply forgot the magazine was on him. At that point, Boley had Williams sit back down in the passenger seat. Shortly thereafter, Mull said, Boley noticed Williams "blankly'" staring at him through the passenger side window. Williams then reached into the glove box, Mull said, grabbed the gun he previously said was at home, and began firing through the window at Boley.

Boley didn't have his weapon out at the time, but he reached out and grabbed Williams' gun, Mull said, and "trapped" it against his body so as to divert the shots away from him. He then drew his own gun and exchanged gunfire with Williams, hitting him once in the right side, once in the inner thigh and four times in his back.

Boley, along with Jeffersonville Police officers and EMTs, provided aid to Williams, Mull said, but Williams was pronounced dead in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

Mull said he consulted with the pathologist who conducted Williams' autopsy, and he said the evidence was consistent with Boley's explanation of what happened. Boley said he tried to avoid shooting Webb, and she jumped out of the car and onto the ground after shots were fired. She wasn't hit.

Williams had multiple arrest warrants out of Clark County at the time of the shooting, including two cases of criminal mischief and invasion of privacy in relation to Webb. Mull said the fact that they were even together on that night, in which Webb said they were headed to McDonald's, was a violation of a no-contact order from a judge stemming from those previous incidents. Mull said there was a "history of violence" in their relationship.

Williams was also in violation of his home incarceration on April 29.

Last summer, Mull ruled that Boley's use of force was justified and charges wouldn't be filed against him in connection with the shooting.

Now, a year later, Williams' family is telling their side of the story.

In a news release, attorneys representing Williams' family said ISP killed Williams "in front of his pregnant partner while he was not resisting or posing a threat to officers," and "As an apparent result of the stress related to the pull over, Williams' pregnant longtime partner, Ashtyn Webb, began going into labor."

The attorneys go on to say Boley's claim that he pulled Williams over for a broken tail light is "a common police excuse for traffic stops targeting Black people."

The lawsuit, filed by Williams' family in federal court on Thursday, provides a description of the shooting that is vastly different than the one provided by police at the time. It claims Williams "was not acting violently, had done nothing to provoke or justify Defendant Boley's brutal and deadly assault, and posed no risk of substantial bodily harm to any person" at the time of the shooting.

When issuing the ruling that Boley's use of force was justified, Mull said interviews conducted with Boley and Webb were consistent with the evidence gathered at the scene and Webb said she didn't see much of what happened. He said Williams regularly carried the gun used in the shooting, but it was unknown who owned the gun. Mull said Facebook posts showed Williams with the gun in his hand. However, in the lawsuit, Webb — who is named as a plaintiff — claims Williams didn't fire the gun she says belonged to her, but dangled it "in a manner in which he couldn't fire it."

"Malcolm leaned out of the car with his left hand while dangling the handgun in a way to make it clear that he could not shoot the weapon and told Defendant Boley, 'here, here, here' so that Defendant Boley could see and take the weapon," the lawsuit states. "As Malcolm attempted to hand the handgun to the police officer, by holding it in a way that clearly demonstrated that he could not shoot the handgun, Defendant Boley fatally shot him at least six times."

The lawsuit claims Williams told police there was a gun in the car and he "never pointed the handgun at anyone," and "posed no threat of serious bodily harm to anyone before and during the time that Defendant Boley fatally shot him." It also claims Boley "made up false claims about the number of shots fired to make the unlawful shooting appear justified."

The lawsuit is seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages, attorney's fees and a jury trial.

Williams' death sparked a Black Lives Matter march in southern Indiana last summer, led by members of Jeffersonville's faith community. The demonstration took place amid ongoing protests in Louisville following the shooting death of Breonna Taylor at the hands of officers with the Louisville Metro Police Department.

Just days before the march, Williams' brother, Tyler Williams, who had been organizing and holding peaceful protests with friends and family calling for more transparency in his brother's case, was accidentally shot and killed by his wife on June 11, 2020, outside an apartment complex in New Albany.

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