Man sues police over handling of sister’s suicide
By associated press
A man who claims he was beaten and handcuffed during the investigation of his sister’s suicide is suing the city of Portsmouth, N.H., and its police department.
In his federal lawsuit, David Lee contends that he called police on the night of Jan. 13, 2000, to report a shooting. When police arrived, they handcuffed Lee and repeatedly kicked and punched him as he tried to explain what happened to his sister, who was lying in a pool of blood on the front lawn.
Authorities later determined that Grace Lee, 34, had shot herself in the temple.
David Lee’s lawyer, Lawrence Vogelman, said not only was his client handled with force but was held for several hours at the police station.
“I don’t know whether it was bad supervision at the scene, bad training, or what. Rather than simply containing Mr. Lee, who had made the 911 call in the first place, the police came on like a SWAT team before conducting any minimal investigation and separated him from his family in what was a terribly traumatic time for him,” Vogelman said on Jan. 18.
“Whether it was a lack of sensitivity to racial and ethnic differences, I don’t know, but clearly they totally misread the situation,” he said.
The lawsuit asks for an unspecified amount of money to compensate Lee, who is of Chinese descent, for his physical and emotional injuries.
City Attorney Bob Sullivan called the allegations of racism “reckless and irresponsible.”
“I most certainly sympathize with Mr. Lee and his family for their loss. It was a tragic situation. I do, however, absolutely support my officers and the conduct they displayed,” he said. “When they got there, they had no way of knowing who they were dealing with.”