Suit Accuses Michigan Police and Fire Departments of Wrongful Death

The wife of a man who died of an overdose in 2022 has filed suit against the city of Inkster, claiming police and firefighters failed to render appropriate aid to her husband. Kimani Wesley filed suit in Wayne County Circuit Court alleging civil rights violations under 42 USC §1983, wrongful death, gross negligence, failure to render aid, and failure to train and supervise.

The suit involved the death of Donyol Wesley in the early morning hours of March 11, 2022. Inkster police and firefighters had the opportunity the evening prior to treat and transport Wesley, but apparently allowed him to decline aid. Quoting from the complaint:

• On March 10, 2022, at approximately 9:30 PM, Defendant Officers initiated a traffic stop of Mr. Wesley for allegedly impeding traffic.
• During the stop, Mr. Wesley explicitly informed Defendant Officers that he had ingested four Xanax pills, a quantity far exceeding the recommended dosage, which created a clear and urgent medical emergency requiring immediate intervention.
• Defendant Officers observed Mr. Wesley in visible distress-struggling to breathe, exhibiting a persistent, severe cough, and displaying clear signs of an overdose.
• Officer Hall explicitly noted in his report, “he kept coughing really bad as he was choking.”
• Despite this alarming observation, Defendants took no immediate action to seek medical attention for Mr. Wesley.
• Rather than securing emergency medical treatment or transporting Mr. Wesley to a hospital, Defendants ignored his rapidly deteriorating condition and released him, demonstrating a blatant and callous disregard for his life.
• Given his obvious medical crisis, their decision to simply let him leave the scene without medical supervision was reckless, unjustifiable, and in direct violation of their duty to protect public safety.
• EMS was eventually called, but inexplicably, they failed to transport Mr. Wesley for further medical evaluation.
• Instead, despite his clear inability to make rational medical decisions given his impaired state, Mr. Wesley was allowed to walk home unassisted, without any supervision or follow-up care.
• This decision was reckless and grossly negligent, as he was in no condition to care for himself.
• At approximately 12:30 AM on March 11, 2022, emergency responders from the Inkster Fire Department were dispatched to Mr. Wesley’s home after a 911 call reporting a medical emergency.
• Upon arrival, first responders found Mr. Wesley unresponsive on the kitchen floor.
• Despite the presence of trained law enforcement personnel, Officer Kritzer and Officer Long observed a friend attempting CPR and, instead of taking immediate control of the situation as trained professionals, allowed the untrained friend to continue administering CPR.
• Their failure to intervene properly and take over life-saving measures demonstrated a shocking level of incompetence and negligence.
• Officer Kritzer was not equipped with a Narcan kit, a gross dereliction of duty given that Officer Snyder’s report explicitly described the area as one with high levels of “drug sales and drug use.”
• In an area where overdoses were known to be prevalent, the fact that an officer did not have Narcan on hand is both unacceptable and indicative of the systemic failures of the Inkster Police Department.
• Before emergency responders arrived, Officer Long went to his unit and retrieved a single dose of Narcan, which he administered to Mr. Wesley.
• This temporarily restored Mr. Wesley’s pulse, but there were no additional doses available-despite the well-documented medical fact that multiple doses are often required to counteract severe overdoses.
• The complete lack of additional Narcan deprived Mr. Wesley of a potentially life-saving second dose, further highlighting Defendants’ utter disregard for proper overdose response protocols.
• Mr. Wesley was later pronounced dead at Garden City Hospital at 1:35 AM.
• His death was not only preventable but was directly caused by the combined failures of law enforcement and emergency responders to take his medical crisis seriously.
• Defendants’ reckless disregard for human life, failure to render aid, and deliberate indifference to Mr. Wesley’s suffering and imminent death were egregious and unacceptable.
• Their collective inaction directly caused Mr. Wesley’s preventable death, depriving him of his constitutional rights and leaving his loved ones without justice or recourse.

The city had the case removed to US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan today. Here is a copy of the complaint: