KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A judge has dismissed a portion of a family's 2022 lawsuit against four officers involved in the shooting and killing of 17-year-old Anthony Thompson, Jr. in an Austin-East High School bathroom in April 2021.
The portion of the lawsuit against the city of Knoxville doing business as the Knoxville Police Department is still unresolved, according to the federal court order.
The lawsuit alleged the officers failed to follow proper training and procedures — and failed to provide the teenager with appropriate medical care after shooting him. It also alleged the department failed to properly train officers on de-escalation tactics.
Thompson's mother, Chanada Robinson, and Thompson's friend, Gralyn Strong, sought damages — including the cost of burial, for which Robinson took out a loan — and additional training for the Knoxville Police Department.
In his ruling late Thursday, U.S. District Judge Charles Atchley, Jr. said his decision to grant summary judgment to the KPD officers was due to a matter of law. The officers argued they were entitled to qualified immunity to the claims under the law given the circumstances during the 11-second struggle inside the school bathroom on April 12, 2021, and Atchley agreed.
The officers involved were Jonathon Clabough, Adam Willson, Stan Cash and Brian Baldwin.
"Because Defendants had probable cause to believe that Anthony committed a domestic assault, they had authority to take him into custody at Austin East and are thus entitled to qualified immunity," Atchley said. "After a gun fired from inside Anthony’s sweatshirt pocket, Clabough certainly had probable cause to believe that Anthony posed a threat of serious harm to himself and his fellow officers when he discharged his weapon four seconds later."
Atchley granted summary judgment to the four officers and dismissed Robinson's and Strong's claims. He said the "unspeakable tragedy" of what unfolded that day, however, was not lost on the court.
"At just 17 years old, Anthony was taken from this world far too soon. Plaintiff Robinson lost her son, and Plaintiff Strong lost his best friend. But the Court is bound by the law in even the most tragic circumstances, and the law requires dismissal of Plaintiffs’ claims against the individual defendants," he said.
The Knoxville Police Department said "a tremendous weight" had been lifted off the officers' shoulders.
"That order ruled in no uncertain terms that the actions of Officer Clabough, Officer Baldwin, Officer Willson and Lt. Cash did not amount to a violation of any constitutional rights. The ruling also determined that our officers’ decision to effect an arrest was appropriate given the information that they knew, the use of force was objectively reasonable, and our officers did not act with indifference or deny the medical care that was needed," Chief Paul Noel said. "Anthony Thompson Jr.’s death was an unimaginable tragedy. It was a tragedy for his family, our community, our department and the officers who were involved. This ruling does not alter that fact in the slightest, which U.S. District Court Judge Atchely himself noted in his ruling."
During the 11-second struggle inside the school bathroom on April 12, 2021, officers said they feared for their lives when they realized Thompson had a gun concealed inside the pocket of his hoodie. After Thompson's gun fired, Clabough shot and killed Thompson and wounded a fellow officer. Thompson died on the bathroom floor.
District Attorney General Charme Allen declined to prosecute the four officers. She said the shooting was justified and Clabough acted in his own self-defense and in the defense of the other officers.
Thompson's death led to nights of protest across the city and a pledge from Mayor Indya Kincannon to re-evaluate how police officers work in schools.
"Anthony's mother has suffered the most devastating emotional distress and anguish imagined by humankind," the lawsuit said.
On the day of the shooting, it said a TBI agent questioned her before telling her what happened to her son. It took several days, the suit alleges, before the Thompson family tracked down the medical facility that held Anthony Thompson's remains.
"Come on Knoxville, we can do better than that," said her attorney, Margaret Held.
Robinson said she took out a loan to pay for her son's funeral and he still does not have a headstone.
"It’s been very emotional for us and I don’t think that’s going to change any time soon," she said.
"[Robinson] has repeatedly requested to meet with various officials, but all have refused," the suit alleged. "Mother believes this is because the city 'just wants Anthony to disappear.'
For Robinson, the pain of her son's loss may never disappear. She remembers him as a picky eater who hated vegetables and a teenager who loved his hair — long dreadlocks.
"What I miss most about him is him asking me to cook," she said. "He was gentle, he was sweet, he was kind."
Robinson said she had no idea he had a gun — if she had, she said she would have "kicked his butt."
"That was my baby," she said.
The shooting
On April 12, 2021, the KPD officers responded to the high school after Thompson's girlfriend's mother filed a domestic violence complaint against him. She and her daughter said Thompson physically injured her earlier in the day at school, and it wasn't the first time.
Upon arrival, they located Thompson in a school bathroom. He sat in a bathroom stall with the door open, on his phone. They ordered him to get up, and he put his hands in the front pocket of his hoodie as he stood.
One officer took his left hand, but SRO Willson struggled to get Thompson to remove his right hand from his hoodie.
As Clabough approached, he said he could see the barrel of a gun pointing at him from inside the hoodie pocket.
The gun fired, but what isn't clear, and may never be, is whether Thompson intentionally pulled the trigger or if the gun fired accidentally during his struggle with one of the officers.
The bullet fired from Thompson's gun passed between Officer Baldwin and the bathroom stall door and hit a trash can. Baldwin said he felt the concussion of the blast and fell back, thinking he had been shot.
Clabough said he then saw the gun, still inside the hoodie, pointed towards Lt. Stan Cash and fired his weapon at Thompson.
The officers don't know it because they didn't see it, but Allen said at some point after this, Thompson lost the gun and it fell into the bathroom stall.
Thompson and Willson went to the ground, still struggling. Clabough said the way Thompson moved his body, he thought he was pointing a gun at Willson and he fired again. That shot hit Willson in the leg.
A 22-year-old has entered a guilty plea in federal court on charges related to buying the gun he then gave to Thompson.
The Lawsuit
The lawsuit claimed if the officers or school district had properly followed a 2019 Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between Knox County Schools and KPD, it "likely would have saved Anthony's life."
The MOA said, in part, that principals should engage law enforcement officials when the situation warrants, though the lawsuit acknowledges the officers who responded to Austin-East believed school administrators were aware of their presence.
The lawsuit also asks the court to mandate Knoxville and Knox County adopt a series of policies to be known as "Anthony's Laws." These include:
- Prohibiting law enforcement from making any arrest at school, unless it is necessary to protect the immediate safety of those at school.
- Requiring all KPD officers to undergo 80 hours of training on de-escalation, crisis intervention and the Memorandum of Agreement with the school district.
- Warning a child they will be subject to physical force if they don't comply, before using physical force.
- Refraining from interviewing the next of kin of a deceased child for 24 hours after their death.