Parents Sue S.D. County in Deputy’s Killing of Son

The parents of Jeffrey Bray, who was shot and killed by a sheriff’s deputy after the 21-year-old Bray drove backward into a sheriff’s patrol car in a Vista apartment complex, have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the county.

The suit, filed by Joe and Brenda Bray in Vista Superior Court, alleges that the two deputies unjustifiably shot and killed their son on May 18, and that they were inadequately trained and supervised by the sheriff’s department, which is also named as a defendant.

“We have to do something to show we don’t accept what they did. This is the right thing to do,” Joe Bray said after filing the lawsuit. “With proper training (of deputies), this would not have happened.”

Reserve Deputy John Wickham, who fired the fatal shot, and Deputy William Curt Fewell, who also fired but missed, mistakenly thought Bray was driving a stolen pickup. A witness said Bray unwittingly backed into the patrol car after it followed him into his apartment parking lot.

The district attorney’s office is assisting the county grand jury in investigating the shooting incident, and the FBI is conducting its own probe on the basis that Bray’s civil rights may have been violated.

Attorney Dwight Ritter, who represents the victim’s parents, estimated that the case could come to trial within a year unless the grand jury or FBI investigations result in criminal charges against Wickham or Fewell.

Bray’s 26-year-old widow, Lena, also has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the county, seeking $4.7 million in damages.

Her suit also was filed in Superior Court, but the case has shifted to federal court because of the civil rights issue.

Lena Bray moved back to Alabama last month to live with her parents until the birth of the couple’s child, which is due in November.