Alamance County sheriff Terry Johnson and nine of the 10 “John Doe” sheriff’s deputies who were allegedly at the scene of a fatal shooting in Burlington in May 2023 have been removed as defendants from a federal lawsuit that has been filed by the victim’s estate.
Johnson and 10 unnamed sheriff’s deputies had been listed as defendants to the suit, filed by the administrator for the estate of Warren Kent Davis, then 43, white, male, of 1755 Shamrock Drive, Burlington. Davis was shot after allegedly lunging at deputies with a knife when they responded to a 911 call from his ex-girlfriend’s home at 2411 Carolina Road in Burlington on May 8, 2023.
On the day of the shooting, Davis’ girlfriend, who is identified in federal court filings as Jackie Pleasant, had picked him up and taken him back to her house before calling 911 to have him removed from the property, according to the suit, which notes that Pleasant had obtained a domestic violence protective order against Davis earlier that year. According to the federal suit, Johnson and 10 unnamed, “John Doe” deputies had responded to the 911 call from Pleasant’s residence.
Davis’ mother, Kathy Fujiwara, who is also the administrator of his estate, initially filed a lawsuit against the 10 deputies who responded to the 911 call, as well as the sheriff, seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory damages. The lawsuit alleged that the deputies had failed to de-escalate the situation and stand down, ultimately violating Davis’ rights under the Fourth, Fifth, and 14th amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
Earlier this year, U.S. District Court judge Lindsey A. Freeman granted a motion to dismiss two claims of constitutional rights violations against the sheriff in his official capacity and dismissed two counts against Johnson in his personal capacity.
Freeman concluded that Davis’ estate had not adequately shown that Johnson should be held liable for the actions of the “John Doe” deputies – and that the estate hadn’t adequately shown that the sheriff had violated Davis’ constitutional rights – based on an opinion and order that Freeman entered in March of this year.
Freeman has also ordered Davis’ estate to show cause as to why the suit shouldn’t be dismissed in its entirety.
Late last month, Fujiwara filed an amended lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, listing just one deputy – Jacob Thomas Hinckle – and the insurer for the sheriff’s office, The Travelers Companies, Inc., as defendants.
Johnson, who knew the victim by his first name, “Kent,” was trying to persuade him to turn himself in, as the victim ducked underneath an old truck and laid on his stomach, while the deputies continued to close in from all sides, according to the amended lawsuit.
“Due the [truck’s] height, Kent had to lay flat, moving from his side to stomach as he reacted to the deputies yelling at him to come out,” the amended suit alleges.
Fujiwara claims in her amended suit that Hinckle fired at least eight rounds at Davis, striking him multiple times, “at least once in the head,” after Davis refused to drop the knife he was holding. “[Davis] was surrounded by deputies under the truck with several weapons, lethal and non-lethal, pointed at him without any means of raising up to do any harm to the deputies,” the suit alleges.
As she had in her original suit, Fujiwara is continuing to seek an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages under multiple alleged statutory and constitutional violations, including: deprivation of Davis’ civil rights by “excessive, unnecessary force” by allegedly firing several rounds at the victim as he lay under the truck; death by wrongful act of another; and intentional infliction and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
Fujiwara is being represented by the Hairston Lane law firm in Raleigh.
