YPSILANTI, Mich. — The family of John Jenuwine, a 34-year-old man shot and killed by Washtenaw County sheriff's deputies, has filed an amended lawsuit directly naming eight deputies and sergeants and making new, detailed allegations about what happened before and after the shooting.
The amended 117-page complaint includes 18 counts, alleging excessive force, failure to intervene and failure to provide medical care.
According to the lawsuit, 911 calls came in regarding a possible white van and two occupants, both Black men, one allegedly waving a gun. Deputies then encountered Jenuwine, a white man driving a white van — meaning he did not match the original description, per the lawsuit.
Attorney Todd Flood, who represents the Jenuwine family, alleges that two officers saw Jenuwine and observed that he did not have a gun.
"Two police officers see him, and he doesn't have a gun; he has a bottle in his hand. Not a gun, and they don't announce that to the rest of the team," Flood said.
The lawsuit claims deputies knew Jenuwine did not match the original suspect description and yet continued the pursuit, ramming and flipping his van before opening fire. According to Flood, Jenuwine was boxed in a parking lot when deputies chose to ram his vehicle.
"They ram him when he's in a parking lot, boxed. They could have boxed him in. Instead, they ram him," Flood said.
Dashcam video from Jan. 6, filed as an exhibit to the amended complaint, shows deputies opening fire on Jenuwine as he was inside the overturned van. The complaint states 34 rounds were fired and that no firearm was ever found in Jenuwine's van. According to Flood, Jenuwine was shot seven times, with six of those shots striking him in the back area.
Video from the lawsuit shows the final moments of the chase, crash and shooting:
New bodycam video appears to show Jenuwine pleading for help, kicking and moving for nearly 20 minutes after he was shot. According to the complaint, medical personnel did not reach Jenuwine until nearly 2 hours after the shooting. Flood said the shooting occurred just minutes from a Level 1 trauma center, and that medical experts have told the family Jenuwine would have survived with timely care.
"Every doctor, trauma center, surgeon has said to us, yes, he would have been saved. That with medical attention, he would have been saved," Flood said.
Flood said the complaint also describes deputies poking Jenuwine with a stick through the windshield to check if he was still alive during that wait.
You can watch Ruta Ulcinaite's entire report below:
Flood called the incident a failure at every level of law enforcement training and protocol.
"Every step of the way is not training and protocol. Someone trying to stab a tire, you know, the rage, that's nowhere in the training. Waiting two hours just to watch him bleed to death, him screaming for help," Flood said.
Jenuwine's father, Larry, said the family has been devastated by each new development in the case.
"The absolute lack of respect that Washtenaw County Sheriff's Department had for our son, and making a decision to let him lay there and bleed to death when the medical professionals have said that if he had been medically assisted, he probably would have lived," Larry Jenuwine said. "For them to make that decision and to let him lay there is just beyond comprehension for us. How do you do that to a human being?" Jenuwine said.
He described the toll the case has taken on his family.
"Every one of these developments tears the scab off of the healing that we are trying to do. Our lives have been just turned upside down through this whole thing," Jenuwine said.
The case will now move forward in federal court, where the deputies and Washtenaw County will have a chance to respond to the allegations. The state's investigation into Jenuwine's death has also been sent to the attorney general's office for review; no potential charges have been issued at this time.
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