Court documents provided Monday named the officers involved in the April shooting death of Melissa Boarts, including the one who shot and killed her.
The documents, sent to media members by the Boarts' attorney, Julian McPhillips, produced details the city had long held despite the lawsuit the Boarts filed after the Auburn Police Division shot and killed their daughter April 3.
Though the documents name both Detective Cpl. Michael Creighton and Lt. Daniel Humphries as defendants, Creighton was identified in the documents as the officer believed to have shot and killed Boarts. Humphries is included as a defendant because he was "involved in some kind of leadership capacity," McPhillips said.
She was shot on Red Creek Road in Macon County after her parents called police when she got in her car and began driving erratically on Interstate 85. Her mother told police she was suicidal and carrying a knife.
Police said they received a call reporting a bipolar, suicidal motorist and were aware of the knife. After police pulled her over to "check her welfare," police said Boarts charged officers with a lock-blade knife, and two officers fired at her, with one shot hitting her in the chest and killing her.
A Macon County grand jury ruled the shooting justified in August after the Macon County district attorney's office presented evidence from an investigation conducted by the Alabama State Bureau of Investigations.
But the Boarts also filed a lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Macon County against the the City of Auburn for wrongful death and assault and battery.
Creighton, 33, was equipped with a folding lock blade knife along with his handgun, the document said. He also had a shotgun in the trunk of his car. He has served for 12 years, documents show.
Creighton and four other officers, not including Humphries, were at the scene of the shooting, and none of them have been involved in previous complaints or incidents of deadly force, according to the court records. They were equipped with other weapons, some with batons, pepper spray or folding lock blade knives in addition to handguns.
However, the city provided McPhillips with court records about a previous lawsuit filed against Creighton, though McPhillips said he has not reviewed the records yet.
The five officers, who are all still employed by the city, also completed an eight-hour course called Mental Health First Aid USA the month before the incident, according to the documents.
“The training addressed mental health problems such as depression, anxiety disorders, psychosis and substance-use disorders,” the document reads. The police division also offers Taser training, the document said.
Melissa had seizures since she was 15 and began suffering from bipolar disorder in her early 20s, her mother told The Plainsman last month. In her 30s, Melissa was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and manic depression, she added.
Court records also state that none of the five officers were “punished, reprimanded, suspended, terminated, or punished in any other way as a result of the shooting."
The city also objected to several requests for documents, and McPhillips said he is sending a letter in response to the objections, some of which he said are not well-founded.
“I think their initial discovery responses reflected that the shooting and killing of Melissa Boarts was inexcusable, unjustifiable, and the City of Auburn is going to be liable for it,” McPhillips said.
APD Chief Paul Register said he would not be able to comment on the matter pending the litigation.
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