DAYTON — A Montgomery County judge dismissed a wrongful death lawsuit filed against the City of Dayton, Dayton police, two officers, and others stemming from the deaths of a mother and child who police talked to just hours before they were killed.
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Common Pleas Court Judge Steven Dankof dismissed that case in late May in the deaths of Aisha Nelson, 31, and her 6-year-old daughter Harper Monroe on Burleigh Avenue in June 2022.
Dankof ruled against multiple complaints in the lawsuit, including a claim of wrongful death by negligence and duty to protect by the two Dayton police officers who responded to the initial call.
Michael Wright, the attorney representing Nelson’s family in the case, told News Center 7′s John Bedell he plans to appeal the decision.
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Family members of Nelson and Monroe filed the wrongful death lawsuit in December against the City of Dayton, Dayton police, and others after an investigation found police had been called to the house on a domestic violence complaint just hours before the two were killed.
The man who shot them -- identified as 32-year-old Waverly Dante Rashad Hawes and Nelson’s live-in boyfriend -- would be found several hours after police discovered Nelson and Monroe. Hawes is believed to have shot himself to death in Falkville, Alabama, according to police and a coroner in that state.
Nelson had called multiple times during the night before her death which prompted a police response. Body camera footage released by police showed the interaction with Nelson, Hawes, and the officers.
In the footage that was released in July 2022, at some point after the male officer and Hawes speak, Nelson tells the officers Hawes is “walking around the house, waving the gun that I purchased. He didn’t state making any threats last night until he had the gun.... All this in front of my daughter, that’s the issue that I have.”
The officers step away for a moment to try to decide what to do, but struggle with the fact they don’t believe there are explicit threats and Nelson clearly doesn’t want to leave the residence, apparently even if Hawes stays.
One of the officers can be heard to say, “It would be a stretch. We could articulate [it] as domestic threats and take him to jail.”
Nelson asks the officers if they can make Hawes leave for the night. But she makes it clear she doesn’t want him to go into the system [be arrested and detained in jail].
They tell her they can’t make him leave and that’s how the situation is left.