Attorney for Gay Shooting Victim Isiah Brown Files Lawsuit for $26M

Brown was shot eight times by a Virginia police officer while holding a phone.

John Casey

John Casey is senior editor of The Advocate, writing columns about political, societal, and topical issues with leading newsmakers of the day. The columns include interviews with Sam Altman, Mark Cuban, Colman Domingo, Jennifer Coolidge, Kelly Ripa and Mark Counselos, Jamie Lee Curtis, Shirley MacLaine, Neil Patrick Harris, Ellen DeGeneres, Bridget Everett, U.S. Reps. Nancy Pelosi, Jamie Raskin, Ro Khanna, Maxwell Frost, Sens. Chris Murphy and John Fetterman, and presidential cabinet members Leon Panetta, John Brennan, and many others. John spent 30 years working as a PR professional on Capitol Hill, Hollywood, the Nobel Prize-winning UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, UN Envoy Mike Bloomberg, Nielsen, and as media relations director with four of the largest retailers in the U.S.

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John Casey

October 20 2021 10:01 AM EST

October 20 2021 10:04 AM EST

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The attorney for Isiah Brown, the gay Virginia man shot eight times by a Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Deputy April 21 while he was on the phone with a 911 dispatcher, has filed a lawsuit in federal court on Brown's behalf.

David Haynes, a lawyer with the Cochran Group in Washington, D.C. said that the suit filed was against Spotsylvania County Police Chief Roger Harris and Deputy David Turbyfill for their roles in "...the totally unnecessary shooting incident involving Mr. Brown that occurred April 21."

As The Advocate covered in April after the shooting, Brown, a 32-year-old gay Black man, was walking down the street away from his house, and was on the phone with a 911 dispatcher, when he was shot eight times for holding a phone to his ear. Despite being in critical condition for weeks, Brown survived. At the time, his family blamed the miscommunication between the dispatcher and the police officer.

According to Haynes, the shooting resulted in numerous life-altering injuries to Mr. Brown which will leave him "...with permanent damage for the rest of his life."

"Isiah Brown's life will never be the same after his tragic encounter with David Turbyfill," Haynes added. "Our hope is that this lawsuit will provide a measure of justice for Mr. Brown and force the Spotsylvania Police Department to enhance their training and update their policies and procedures so that this never happens to another person."