Family of Rochester Shooting Victim Tyshon Jones Defeats Motion to Dismiss

On December 29, 2022, KLLF and co-counsel Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP secured a favorable decision in a lawsuit filed on behalf of the family of Tyshon Jones. Specifically, the federal court in Rochester denied the City of Rochester’s motion to dismiss in its entirety, finding that each claim asserted by the family on behalf of the estate of their deceased son Tyshon Jones can continue. The lawsuit concerns the killing of Mr. Jones, a young Black man, by the Rochester Police Department in 2021. The suit alleges that Jones was in acute mental distress the night he was shot five times and killed by an RPD officer. Rather than accommodating his disability, as required by law, the officers exacerbated it, ignoring his obvious need for help, and instead opening fire. RPD’s use of deadly force was not an anomaly, but part of an institutional policy and practice of using unconstitutionally excessive force, particularly against Black people and those with disabilities.

The case is Kennetha Short and Pernell Jones, Sr., in their capacity as administrators of the Estate of Tyshon Jones v. City of Rochester, in the United States District Court for the Western District of New York. The family is represented by KLLF attorneys Doug Lieb and Alanna Kaufman.

To read the Decision and Order, please click here. To read coverage of the decision by the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, please click here.