A mother has filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and two unidentified rangers who shot and killed her 20-year-old son in February.
Attorney Jacob Hafter said his client, Tracy Meadows, filed the suit after getting no answers from the government about the death of D'Andre Berghardt Jr.
"We've been patient and we haven't rushed the way others have in other places," Hafter said Tuesday, referring to high-profile police slayings in Ferguson, Missouri, and Staten Island, New York.
The slaying of Berghardt on State Route 159 near Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area drew wide attention after witness cellphone video was posted online showing two officers physically preventing Berghardt from entering two vehicles stopped in traffic. It appeared that about 10 gunshots were fired after Berghardt climbed into an idling Nevada Highway Patrol vehicle.
The BLM released a statement several days later saying Berghardt had threatened to shoot the officers, and they reacted when he tried to reach for a rifle in a rack in the Highway Patrol car.
The rangers were not identified by name, although one was described as having 17 years of law enforcement experience and the other more than nine years.
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