A family was unintentionally caught up in a police chase in which a suspect died is suing George and Jackson counties, whose deputies were involved, the family’s lawsuit says.

Autum M. Wiser and Robert D. Ellett filed the lawsuit on behalf of themselves and their two children. They accuse the counties of negligence and gross negligence, saying law enforcement officers were indifferent to the family’s safety and failed to protect them. The lawsuit also alleges that the counties failed to properly train and supervise the officers involved.

Wiser and Ellett are seeking unspecified compensation for the “emotional distress and substantial trauma” they suffered, including payment for medical bills and coverage for lost wages.

The lawsuit represents only one side of the case. Counties have not yet had a chance to submit responses.

Police officers shoot suspect

Wiser and Ellett learned on the evening of May 2, 2023, that law enforcement officers had responded to a situation near their home in the George County community of Perkinston. Although they were concerned, the lawsuit says, they weren’t sure what was happening. At 8 p.m., they said, they learned that police activity had ended.

Before dawn on May 3, the family piled into their truck, with the children in the back seat, to take Ellett to work in Pascagoula. He was driving his dark-colored truck. They saw a black pickup truck similar to theirs approach a stop sign as they approached an intersection. Otherwise, everything was silent.

“Suddenly,” the lawsuit says, “there was a bright flash of lights ahead to their right and a large armored vehicle ran across Broome School Road right in front of their vehicle, forcing them to stop. The armored vehicle collided with the driver’s front side of the black truck, which had not yet stopped. . . “

The collision pushed the black pickup truck into the bushes just off the road. Almost immediately, the lawsuit says, multiple shots were fired from the armored vehicle and eight law enforcement officers ran. All of the officers appeared to be armed, the lawsuit says.

Some of the officers ran toward the black van, while others turned their attention to the van Ellett was driving. The officers pointed their guns at the family, the lawsuit says, with what appeared to be red laser sights shining on their bodies and their truck.

“The officers yelled at them,” the lawsuit says. “They were terrified, they feared for their lives and the lives of their children.”

Ellett shouted that the officers should not shoot the couple or their children. Finally he put it in reverse, backed up and headed home. He didn’t go to work that day and the children didn’t go to school. They were too traumatized, the lawsuit says.

Officers say the suspect fired a gun

At that time, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation reported that Law enforcement officers had been involved in a 16-hour standoff with the suspect, Michael Roy Carney, after attempting to serve him with a warrant accusing him of making terroristic threats.

The George County Sheriff’s Department and the Jackson County SWAT team were on the scene, according to a report from WLOX-TV. When Carney left his house in his truck, the officers gave chase. The MBI, which investigated the case, said officers shot and killed Carney after he pointed a gun at them and began shooting.

The lawsuit also says the family never heard the suspect fire a gun and did not see him with a gun. The windows of his truck, the lawsuit says, appear to have been rolled up.

Christopher “Stopher” Haug of Ocean Springs, the attorney representing Ellett, Wiser and their children, said the family is “still reeling from this.”