US Supreme Court won't take Fong Lee case

Fong Lee
Fong Lee, 19, was shot to death by Minneapolis police officers in 2006, after they say he threatened them with a gun. Lee's family claims Lee was unarmed, and that police planted the gun after the fact.
Photo courtesy of the Minneapolis Police Department

The U.S. Supreme Court won't take up the case of a family that claimed a Minneapolis police officer used excessive force when he shot a fleeing teenager eight times.

In 2009, a federal jury decided against the survivors of 19-year-old Fong Lee, saying that Officer Jason Anderson did not use excessive force in the 2006 shooting. A federal appeals court upheld the jury's verdict last August.

But the family requested that the U.S. Supreme Court review the case. According to a filing made public Friday, the higher court denied that request, meaning the lower court decision will stand.

Lee's family had claimed the teen was unarmed and that Anderson planted a gun near his body. But Anderson and a state trooper testified Lee had a gun and wouldn't drop it.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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