In October 2015, Canyon Boykin, shot 26-year-old Ricky Ball. After losing his job, Boykin has now filed a discrimination lawsuit against the City of Columbus. Boykin claims that he was fired due to the fact that he is white and Ball was black. He also is claiming that his 14th amendment rights were ignored.
The officer says he has “lost income and mental anxiety and stress.” I mean what about the victims family? Im sure they lost a lot of that plus more. Boykin is trying to get them to reverse his termination. Officials of Columbus claim that, the reason Boykin was fired, was not related to Ball’s death. It had to do with a racist Instagram post and also a “policy-breaking ride-along involving his significant other.”
Philip Broadhead, director of the criminal appeals clinic at the University of Mississippi, says,
“For police officers to offer up this type of information in the form of an incident report as sworn law officers. It’s a violation of their oath.”
The night that Ball was shot, Boykin and two other officers stopped him for a faulty tag light. Once ball got out the car, he began to ran which initiated a foot chase. This lead to the shooting of Ricky Ball. Columbus police are saying that Ball stole one of the police officers guns, but the robbery was not reported until months later. The attorney for the City of Columbus says,
“The lawsuit is premature because [Boykin] has not exhausted his appeal rights, we will address the allegations in due time.”
Source: Complex
