Family of mentally ill man shot 9 times, killed by police files $10M lawsuit

The family of an unarmed black man shot and killed by Dearborn police has filed a $10 million wrongful death lawsuit. The shooting of Kevin Matthews sparked several protests in the weeks that followed.

Matthews was shot and killed on December 23, 2015 during a struggle with a Dearborn police officer. Matthews was shot 9 times in the abdomen and chest. A warrant had been out for Matthews arrest.

Dearborn police say Matthews struggled with an officer over his gun when he was fatally shot. Matthews family says he had been diagnosed with a mental disorder and that his situation was known to police.

"When he got shot, it took a lot from me because it was a part of me," Matthews mother, Valerie Johnson, said Monday morning at a news conference announcing the lawsuit. "It's been a long wait, a long time, just to get justice for my child. But I love my child and he loved me."

"I am willing to acknowledge - and the family is willing to acknowledge - since a young age, Kevin Matthews had been diagnosed with a mental disorder. The City of Dearborn Police Department knew that. They knew that; they were chasing him for a misdemeanor," the family's attorney Milton Greeman said.

Matthews had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

The lawsuit also questions Matthews' weight and height listed in the autopsy which were inaccurate.