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Russell Weinstein was waiting on a train at Arapaho Center DART station one afternoon last February, en route to the first day of a new job, when he was caught in the middle of a shootout between police and and a gun-wielding bus passenger.
Weinstein was relatively lucky. Another bystander was killed by a stray bullet. Weinstein escaped with a bullet to the right shoulder. He was well enough on the following day to give an interview to WFAA.
Richardson police later determined the bullet that struck Weinstein was one of the five fired by DART police officer Nakesha Manderson. As a result, he thinks the transit agency is responsible for covering his medical bills and lost wages and paying other damages.
Weinstein sued DART in federal court yesterday, claiming the agency “makes no effort to ensure that its officers are capable of safely implementing deadly force in public and in a manner that prevents harm to innocent bystanders.”
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“For years, DART police officers have undergone no training or education pertaining to the safe use of firearms in public, either under ‘stress’ or other foreseeable life-like conditions, and have undergone no training or education on alternatives to use of deadly force in public,” the suit says. This policy is so egregious, the suit argues, that it amounts to a violation of Weinstein’s rights under the U.S. Constitution.
We have an email into DART, though they typically don’t comment on pending litigation. In an answer to a petition filed by Weinstein last year in Dallas County district court, DART defended Manderson, saying her actions were justified.
