A lawsuit alleges two police departments and a city and county in Pennsylvania violated the constitutional rights of several Black residents they profiled, targeted, and aggressively mistreated during a 2020 manhunt for a man who shot an officer.

The ACLU of Pennsylvania is holding the city of McKeesport, the McKeesport Police Department, Allegheny County, the Allegheny County Police, and numerous officers who go unnamed in the lawsuit responsible for the unlawful treatment of several Black residents during that search by brandishing firearms, demanding entry into homes at gunpoint without a warrant, and using excessive force during traffic stops. Officers also unlawfully detained several residents.

The suit claims the defendants violated Fourth Amendment rights, used excessive force, intentionally inflicted emotional distress, and racially discriminated against a number of people during a manhunt that started on Dec. 20, 2020, to track down a shooting suspect.

Police tried to arrest that suspect, Koby Francis, that day for violating a protection-from-abuse order. When they tried to take him into custody, Francis shot Officer Gerasimos Athans and fled. Athans survived the shooting, and Francis was found in West Virginia and apprehended nine days later.

However, in the days leading up to Francis’s arrest, officers profiled Black residents in neighborhoods near the scene of the arrest in their attempts to locate Francis, the suit claims.

Two plaintiffs in particular, Courtney Thompkins and Ezra Dixon, were treated more intensely and aggressively than other residents, even though both have little to no connection with Francis.

On the day Officer Athans was shot, two officers approached Ms. Thompkins’ partner, Howard Gibbons, with guns drawn in front of their shared home, even though Gibbons shared no resemblance to Francis. When she came outside, officers surrounded her home and pointed guns at her head. They demanded entry into her home without telling her why or providing a warrant.

Ms. Thompkins once worked at Francis’ after-school program when he was 5 or 6. Francis was 22 at the time he was arrested in 2020. Thompkins’ partner, Mr. Gibbons, has no connection to Francis.

In Ezra Dixon’s case, he was driving home with a friend and an acquaintance after getting something to eat and saw a police roadblock set up the day the manhunt for Francis began. When he tried to turn around to avoid the roadblock, a police car raced to cut him off and pulled him over.

One of the officers who conducted the stop, Officer Diberadin, demanded to search the car, saying he smelled cannabis even though Dixon and his two passengers hadn’t been smoking and didn’t possess any weed. The suit alleges police fabricated a reason to gain access to the car. Diberadin also demanded IDs from all three men in the car.

When Dixon didn’t comply, Diberadin reportedly threatened Dixon and said, “I’ll smash your f**king face in this car and get what I want, and nothing is going to happen to me.”

Dixon denied the officers access to his car, but they searched it anyway. They also conducted a pat-down search on Dixon and retrieved his ID from his pocket, even though Dixon objected to the search.

Dixon and his party were finally allowed to leave after a police dispute over whether Dixon had any outstanding warrants. He didn’t.

Police also put Francis’ mother, Kim Neal, under surveillance during the manhunt and had her family repeatedly followed, questioned, and searched. In one instance, they prevented her from entering her home for three hours as they searched it without a warrant, claiming they saw movement inside when no one was home.

At another time, they ambushed her while she was driving home with her husband and younger son. Several blocks from the Neals’ home, officers jumped from behind the bushes and pointed guns at the car before unlawfully detaining her 19-year-old son without explanation.

“The way the city of McKeesport and Allegheny County police officers treated Black residents in McKeesport in December of 2020 is unconscionable,” Solomon Furious Worlds, staff attorney at the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said. “Due process and the constitutional right to privacy were tossed aside by police during numerous unlawful searches, making many of McKeesport’s Black residents feel like they were being terrorized by a militarized police force. Police can’t use a shooting as an excuse to just pick and choose which elements of the Constitution they want to follow.”

The suit seeks compensatory damages and injunctive relief.