Mother of a Convicted Felon Who Killed Himself While Shooting at Police is Suing Cops, City For Not Doing Enough to Save Her Son's Life

This lady is nuts.

The mother of a Washington state parolee who accidentally shot himself to death during a gunfight with San Francisco police last year has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city. Kenneth Wade Harding, 19, fatally wounded himself while running away from officers who stopped him on Third Street in the Bayview neighborhood for failing to pay a Muni fare, police said. But in a lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Harding's mother Denika Chatman said police have some responsibility for her son's death and that officers failed to give him immediate medical care. Instead, they "left him writhing in pain with blood gushing out of his neck," the suit said. "He was literally allowed to drown in his own blood," said Chatman's attorney John Burris. "He was killed needlessly." Harding was trying to fire at the officers with a pistol and apparently shot himself in the neck on July 16, 2011, police investigators said. Officers Matthew Lopez and Richard Hastings also fired on Harding, striking him in the leg, authorities said. Police said Harding's pistol was stolen from the scene - a theft that was captured on amateur cell phone video - and later recovered. The suit, which seeks unspecified damages, names the City of San Francisco, Police Chief Greg Suhr, Lopez and Hastings as defendants. The city has not responded to the suit in court. Harding was a suspect in Seattle in the fatal shooting of a 19-year-old woman three days earlier. He was on parole for trying to pimp a 14-year-old girl in that city. The bullet that entered Harding's neck and lodged in his head was from a .380-caliber handgun, a weapon that San Francisco officers do not carry, police said. A .380-caliber bullet was found in Harding's pocket, and he had gunshot residue on his hand, police said. Some Bayview residents reacted angrily to Harding's shooting, calling it an example of police brutality. Earlier this month, protesters marking the first anniversary of his slaying blocked two Muni lines for less than an hour.

source: San Francisco Chronicle

We'll let you know this ridiculousness gets tossed out of court.

Sidebar: About a week after Kenneth's death, his older brother Ondrell Harding (who is also Denika's son), was arrested in Seattle on murder charges after he beat 50-year-old Anthony Matthews to death. According to police, Ondrell was living in Anthony's apartment. When Anthony told him leave because he was selling drugs out of the apartment, Ondrell hit him with a chair, then beat him while he was unconscious on the floor. Denika sure knows how to raise her kids to become productive members of society.