Photo: Campaign To End Qualified Immunity
David Collie, a Fort Worth, Texas, man whose bid to hold police liable for shooting him in the back and leaving him paralyzed was blocked by the legal doctrine known as qualified immunity, has died at age 38.
The cause of death has not been determined, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s office, pending the outcome of an autopsy.
Paralyzed from the waist down after the 2016 shooting, Collie suffered from pressure wounds, infections, post-traumatic stress disorder and bouts of severe depression. His mother, Pamela McCloud, said his condition deteriorated in recent weeks as he nearly stopped eating and refused wound care and other treatments.
“David said, ‘I’m tired, I can’t go through it no more, I can’t go through it no more.‘ He said that a lot,” McCloud added.
Collie’s shooting and subsequent lawsuit against the police were detailed in “Shielded,” a multipart Reuters series that revealed how qualified immunity, created 50 years ago by the U.S. Supreme Court, has made it increasingly difficult to hold police accountable when they kill or seriously injure people. Read more.
