MANTEO, N.C. — The legal team on a multi-million dollar wrongful death lawsuit against a Dare County Sheriff's Office deputy has spoken out about the reasons behind the new claims filed in a recent lawsuit.
On October 2, deputies responded to an alleged trespassing call on Burnside Road on Manteo. A redacted transcript of a 911 dispatch call from that night shows the caller requested medical assistance for 44-year-old Demetrius Selby before agreeing to police assistance.
Initial reports from the DCSO stated Selby allegedly "came at them" with a knife outside of the building, a piece of property his family contests belongs to their extended relatives, and is a property that was not uncommon to find Selby at.
While walking down the steps, the lawsuit says Selby stumbled on the last step before reaching the ground and tripped over a bicycle, causing him to stumble. That's when the lawsuit claims one of the deputies fired his weapon from "approximately 25 feet" away.
At no point has the sheriff's office said that Selby had been stabbed.
The lawsuit, filed on Thursday, claims that Sylvester Demetrius Selby's constitutional rights were violated, that the deputy involved committed assault and battery against him, and that Selby's death was wrongful.
The two attorneys litigating the case are Chantel Lassiter and Harry Daniels. They're two of the attorneys who represented the family of Andrew Brown Jr., who was shot and killed by Pasquotank County deputies in 2021 while serving warrants. The sides settled on a $3 million settlement.
“The Fourth Amendment deals with unlawful seizures and searches. Search speaks for itself, the state comes in to search the property. But a seizure is not just seizing you under arrest but also causing injury to body, seizing body. Punching a body, shooting a body, that’s a Fourth Amendment violation," Daniels said in an interview with 13News Now following the shooting.
After a verbal command from law enforcement, the lawsuit claims Selby raised both hands above his head and slowly walked down the front steps.
The lawsuit said one of the deputies pointed his flashlight at Selby once he was outside and saw that he was "holding a kitchen knife in one hand and an apple in the other hand" in a non-threatening manner. That same deputy saw blood dripping from Selby's chest, according to the lawsuit.
"If he’s not threatening law enforcement, or not coming at law enforcement in a threatening matter or others, then there is no justification," Daniels said.
As previously reported by 13News Now, the public release of this body camera footage will be an uphill climb based on North Carolina's state law restrictions on body camera footage. However, if released, Daniels believes it would exonerate Selby in the court of public opinion.
"We will never know if the public gets the opportunity to see the video," Daniels said.
"The issue is they can release it. It can be released, if there’s no objections made. It can be released so the issue is when releasing it, are there objections? If your officers didn’t do anything wrong, your officers don’t have anything to hide, then release it," he added.
Daniels acknowledged that the Selby family may have answers as soon as next week when they are reportedly scheduled to meet with officials from the N.C. Department of Justice regarding the case.