LOS ANGELES : Jury Deadlocks in Lawsuit Charging Excessive Force

A jury deadlocked over an excessive force lawsuit filed by a man who claimed police overreacted when he fired a shotgun blast that wounded two officers.

U.S. District Judge William Rea declared a mistrial this week when the eight-member jury found itself split 5-3 in favor of the plaintiffs.

Ike Hudson, 32, and seven others claimed that police, sheriff’s deputies and Marines used excessive force when they fired 185 shots in response to the blast he fired at officers.

The lawsuit seeking $339,875 named the city of Compton, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and individual deputies and officers as defendants.

Authorities converged on Hudson’s Compton apartment May 3, 1992, only a few days after the Los Angeles riots, after neighbors reported that a shot had been fired.

Hudson claimed that a shotgun he was unloading in his apartment accidentally went off.

He said he did not hear police identify themselves when they pounded on his door. Believing he was about to be attacked by a man who had threatened him earlier in the day, Hudson fired one shot through the door.

The shot wounded two officers. Marines, deputies and other police officers outside returned the fire and fired again when they thought they saw a silhouette of a man with a gun and a muzzle flash at a kitchen window. They fired 185 shots into the apartment. No one inside was injured.

Hudson was acquitted on two counts each of attempted murder and assault on a police officer.