Family of Danny Fruits ? a man shot and killed by a Winfield police officer at Tunnel Mill Dam last year ? have notified the city of their intent to file a lawsuit in connection with the man’s death, both sides have confirmed.
A formal lawsuit has yet to be filed with the court, according to Winfield city attorney Bill Muret, because state statue requires a city government be notified before a suit is filed.
“What happens during this notice time period is discovery,” he said. “We give (the notifying party) information that they want, and maybe some things they do not ask for, so they can make up their mind about a suit.”
The city turned the matter over to its insurance company, which has hired an attorney. That attorney is the same one handling a suit against the city regarding handicapped accessibility downtown.
Muret could not say when the notice was received but said the city was still within the 120-day period to file a response, should attorneys elect to do so.
Dorothy Fruits, Danny Fruits’ mother, acknowledged a notice had been filed but offered little comment. She reiterated feelings that the family would like a full airing of details surrounding the shooting.
Dorothy Fruits would not name the attorneys working for her family but did say “in my mind they’re the best we can get.” She continues to believe her son was wrongly killed.
“My standpoint is that they killed my son who was drunk but did not have a weapon,” she said. “He deserved to go to jail. He didn’t deserve to die. At some point, I’m going to have a lot to say.”
Danny Fruits died March 8, 2006 after robbing a cigarette shop on Main and fleeing to the dam area where he and a driver were cornered inside a Jeep Cherokee by police officers, according to a report on the incident prepared by Cowley County attorney Christopher Smith.
Smith ruled that the officer, who never has been named publicly, was justified in shooting Fruits. Smith’s report concludes Fruits did not have a weapon but did fail to cooperate with police and motioned several times toward the waistband of his pants.
Fruits “attempted to put his right hand in his pocket, his left arm went stiff and he quickly brought his hands out of his pockets with what a WPD officer believed to be a weapon,” according to Smith’s report.
Though the officer was cleared of criminal wrong doing, the family has pressed the city and police officials to publicly release the name of the officer who fired the weapon. Any civil suit filed would presumably seek a monetary judgment claiming the officer wrongfully killed Danny Fruits.
The suit could serve to make the incident’s details, including names of officers at the scene, open to the public.
