The mother of Jaylen Lewis, killed by Capitol Police officers in 2022, is now suing them and others in federal court.

In March, a Hinds County grand jury indicted the then-officers Michael Lamar Rhinewalt and Steven Frederick Jr. on a manslaughter charge in the Sept. 25, 2022, death of the 25-year-old. Both were part of the crime suppression Flex Unit.

“Jaylen Lewis should be alive today,” said Bobby DiCello, a partner in the law firm DiCello Levitt, which is representing the Lewis family. “The actions of these officers were not just reckless — they were unconscionable and indefensible. Jaylen was a devoted father with his whole life ahead of him, and his family deserves justice. We are committed to fighting for accountability, transparency and meaningful reform, so that no other family in Jackson has to endure this kind of heartbreak.”

The lawsuit, filed last week in U.S. District Court in Jackson, seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for “the willful, reckless and malicious conduct of defendants.” The lawsuit, which represents one side of a legal argument, also seeks reforms “to ensure the Capitol Police adopt and enforce policies that prevent future tragedies,” DiCello said.

According to the indictment, Frederick and Rhinewalt said one of them shot Lewis because it “was necessary to protect himself from great bodily harm or death at the hands of Lewis,” but the indictment concluded that was “not a reasonable belief under the circumstances.”

The lawsuit also accuses the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, which oversees the Capitol Police, of permitting “officers who have engaged in excessive force or unreasonable violence toward citizens to avoid the consequences of discipline.”

Spokesperson Bailey C. Martin responded, “We have not yet had the opportunity to review the claims, and the Mississippi Department of Public Safety does not comment on pending litigation.”

An investigation by Mississippi Today has uncovered that Col. Steven Maxwell, then-director of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, rejected hiring both officers, but Capitol Police, also part of the Department of Public Safety, hired them.

Rhinewalt and Frederick at the time of the fatal shooting were conducting a drug narcotics operation when they saw a white Jeep Cherokee turn north on West Street in Jackson driven by Lewis, who had a female passenger.

After the officers saw the Cherokee run a red light at Stonewall Street, they turned on their police lights and pulled Lewis over and blocked him from going forward with his car.

Lewis wound up reversing his car and bumping into the police cruiser behind his vehicle, according to the lawsuit. “Jaylen does not brandish a weapon, reach for a weapon, make any violent gestures, threaten anyone, or take any other actions that could be reasonably perceived as endangering officers or others.”

After this, Frederick and Rhinewalt opened fire into the Cherokee, shooting Lewis in the head and killing him, according to the lawsuit. 

As a result, his family has “endured pain, anguish, embarrassment, humiliation, feelings of powerlessness, harm to self-esteem, emotional distress, fear, anxiety, emotional agony, loss of support, loss of companionship, loss of sense of personal safety [and] dignity,” the lawsuit says.

The state Legislature expanded the jurisdiction of Capitol Police beyond the state Capitol in the city of Jackson. “The shift in jurisdiction drastically altered the role of Capitol Police from limited security to full-spectrum urban policing,” according to the lawsuit. “The expansion coincided with a surge in high-intensity encounters, including pursuits, officer-involved shootings, and use-of-force complaints.”

Within the first six months of the Capitol Police beginning to patrol the expanded area, officers shot at least four citizens. “In each case, there were questions about whether officers followed constitutional standards regarding lethal force and pursuit justification,” according to the lawsuit.

A month before Lewis was killed, Capitol Police officers opened fire on a car, striking a passenger in the head. That victim, Sherita Harris, was taken to the hospital where she had surgery to remove bullet fragments from her head. She survived but now has “permanent neurological and facial injuries,” according to the lawsuit.

A grand jury indicted Rhinewalt and another officer, Jeffrey Walker, for aggravated assault in that case. According to the lawsuit, no weapon was recovered from the car.

Walker also faces federal charges for allegedly violating the civil rights of a handcuffed man by slamming his head into the hood of a car and kicking him in the head and face in July 2022.

Frederick, the son-in-law of Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey, totaled his Capitol Police Ford F-150 on U.S. 49 South in Covington County on March 12, 2023. He flunked the DUI field test with a .15 score, nearly twice the legal limit of .08. He was handcuffed and arrested. He was released without bond into Bailey’s custody.

Five months later, Frederick dodged conviction when a state trooper failed to appear for the court hearing, and the judge dismissed the DUI charge.

State authorities have learned that a prosecutor, who wasn’t from Covington County, said Bailey called him and asked him what would happen if a trooper didn’t show up for a DUI hearing and the prosecutor replied that the case would be dismissed.

Bailey has denied these allegations. “Whoever said that I talked to a prosecutor is a liar,” he told WLBT. “That is a completely false lie.”

The sheriff admitted he spoke to the trooper, Clay Loftin, but denied trying to influence him. He said he spoke to Loftin a “handful” of times and told the trooper to “do his job.”

Authorities have also learned that after the wreck, Bailey reportedly telephoned Frederick’s supervisor at Capitol Police, Porfirio Grimaldo, telling him that he should keep Frederick on the force because “the DUI has been taken care of.” 

Contacted for comment, Grimaldo referred all questions to the lawyers for the Department of Public Safety. They wouldn’t comment on it, and neither would Bailey’s lawyer, Jason Dare.

The sheriff told WLBT, “I can swear on a stack of Bibles, I did not ask anyone for any help on that just because I knew the finger would be pointed at me because of that, and you know, let things take their course naturally. I hate that it happened to him (Frederick) because he is a good guy.”

Frederick resigned three days after the wreck “to prevent termination,” according to his certification records. He had worked for Capitol Police less than eight months and paid nothing toward the Ford F-150 he totaled.

A year and a half after Frederick demolished his Capitol Police truck, he wrecked another patrol vehicle, this time as a deputy for Scott County. The sheriff there has said Frederick no longer works there.