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(excerpt) from Newsday
Kin to file suit vs. cops in fatal shooting
June 13, 2012

The family of a Selden man killed by police last year will file a federal lawsuit against the Suffolk County Police Department Thursday, alleging officers used excessive force after illegally entering his home.

Kevin Callahan, 26, was fatally shot in his home on Sept. 20 after police responded to a call of a man with a gun. [Kevin did not, in fact, have a gun.]

The family’s attorney, Bruce Barket, of Garden City, will announce Thursday the filing of a wrongful-death suit in U.S. District Court in Central Islip.

The family said they had called police because they were worried about Callahan, who had been acting erratically on the phone with his mother.

“That [the shooting] was completely unjustified,” Barket said. “Kevin didn’t have a gun. He didn’t attack the police officers. The police officer’s life wasn’t in jeopardy. Kevin was shot and killed in his own home in broad daylight.” …

Barket said the conduct of police after the shooting and the delay in giving the family information on what happened the afternoon of Sept. 20 calls into question the legitimacy of the grand jury presentation. “It really makes me wonder about anything that came out of that investigation and how they behaved early on,” Barket said…

Callahan’s family say he was shot through his bedroom door with the officer never having laid eyes on him. After Callahan was shot, he was handcuffed while he lay on the floor bleeding, the lawsuit says…

“Bottom line,” Christopher Callahan said, “is that if I never called police that day, [we] wouldn’t be in this situation right now.”

Another Suffolk County story:

What happened to Kevin Callahan was under the jurisdiction of the Suffolk County Police. In other Suffolk County news, at the Riverhead Jail, under the jurisdiction of the Suffolk County Sheriff’s office, a man died on Tuesday: “Arthur Thomas, 22, who couldn’t speak and needed the help of a tracheal tube to breathe.” Story at Newsday: here.

Filed under: local, long island, Long Island news, Long Island Politics, New York State Politics, News, progressive politics, suffolk, suffolk county Tagged: | Arthur Thomas, Criminal Justice, Kevin Callahan, Long Island justice issues, Long Island peace and justice, Long Island police, Police Abuse, Riverhead Jail, SCPD, Selden news, Suffolk County news, Suffolk County Police, Suffolk County Police Department, Suffolk County politics, wrongful death