Family files lawsuit against BRPD, claims quick response could have prevented injury

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - A Baton Rouge family says it took two calls to the Baton Rouge Police Department to help while bullets flew through their home. Now, that family has filed a lawsuit, demanding answers. They simply want to know what took them so long.

Mere seconds separated Craig Hall from life and death.

“If they happen to come through the window or come through the door, I was just going to have to surrender myself to the attacker,” Hall said. “to keep them from getting to my family.”

Just before sunrise on April 20, 2018, Hall and his family were literally dodging bullets as they came flying into their home. He hoped a quick 911 call would save them. Unfortunately, an officer didn’t show up before someone threw some type of explosive into the house and his son was shot.

“Bullets just started coming through the house, just unstoppable,” Hall said. “As I got to him, I see him lying in a big pool of blood.”

The lawsuit says some 40 minutes went by before a second plea went out.

“From the center of Baton Rouge, you can reach several of our surrounding parishes in less time than some 40 some odd minutes,” said Dedrick Moore, attorney for the family.

Attorneys Ron Haley and Dedrick Moore filed a lawsuit against BRPD on behalf of the family against. While they’re still working to figure out what happened, the attorneys say what’s clear to them is a haphazard response from officers.

“I think with a timely response and police being on the scene, certainly it would have slowed down some of the gunfire and maybe even prevented the gunfire,” Moore said.

Haley says the family’s anxiety raised as each minute passed.

“Waiting, hoping that every car that passed by, that the blue lights are going to flash and that they’ll be ushered outside the house," said Hall.

Both attorneys agree when someone’s life is at stake, that should be considered a top priority.

Haley says some neighborhoods could be attached with a stigma.

“And through the discovery process, hopefully we’ll be able to prove and show that there’s a disparity between responding to certain neighborhoods versus responding to other neighborhoods," he said.

“It rises to the level of now we want to put the spotlight on that it should be fairness and equity as it relates to how police respond to any given neighborhood,” Moore said.

WAFB reached out to BRPD for comment, but has not gotten a response from them at this time.

“We do believe that there was an extreme delay, whether it be intentional or not, that was paid to this particular family in this particular area and this is a pattern,” Moore said.

This shooting has left the Hall family unstable, bouncing from hotels to homes with no place to stay. Yet again, they’re pleading with BRPD for answers.

“It’s hard to get someone to understand where I’m coming from if you haven’t been in that situation,” Hall said. “We can’t expect much from anyone but ourselves, so we have to stay focused and do what we have to do to stay safe at the same time.”

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