New Castle County Pays $1.05 Million to Settle Federal Suit Over Fatal 2021 Police Shooting of Lymond Moses

Lymond Moses was 30 years old when New Castle County police officers shot him shortly after 1 a.m. on January 13, 2021, in the Riverside neighborhood of Wilmington, Delaware. He died of his wounds. He left a wife and two young children.

Officers were patrolling an area where stolen vehicles had been found when they came upon Moses resting in a parked car with the engine running. An officer used a baton to turn off the engine and told him to get out. Moses woke, started the car, and drove away. The officers followed him down a dead-end street. He turned around to face their vehicles and drove toward them. Officer Roberto Ieradi and Corporal Robert Ellis opened fire as the car came forward. A bullet struck Moses in the head, and his car then hit a police SUV and a telephone pole.

His sister, Lakeisha Nix, sued New Castle County in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware on April 28, 2021, on behalf of his estate. Attorney Emeka Igwe of The Igwe Firm filed the case, with Renee Leverette also listed as counsel on the federal docket. The complaint alleged wrongful death, excessive force and violations of his Fourth Amendment rights. It argued that the officers were not in imminent danger from the car, that they fired calmly and deliberately, and that one officer fired after the vehicle had already passed him. Igwe noted that the encounter began over what was described as a misdemeanor amount of marijuana.

Liability was contested throughout. The county's lawyer, David MacMain, told reporters that Moses had made a series of bad decisions that night. The officers had their own counsel, and a report commissioned by the Delaware attorney general's office had earlier concluded that their actions were justified. A toxicology report also found fentanyl in Moses' system. The case moved through discovery and summary-judgment briefing, with the estate pressing its claim that the shooting was unjustified.

A federal hearing in June 2023 was followed by a settlement signed on July 21, 2023. The county agreed to pay $1.05 million, paid to the law firm representing the family. All claims against the three officers were dismissed, and the agreement included no admission of liability or wrongdoing by the county. The figure became public through a Freedom of Information Act request, and WDEL and WHYY reported it in August 2023.

The payment is the gross amount, so it includes attorney fees, and the portion that reached the estate has not been reported. The case never went to a jury, which meant the estate avoided the risk of a trial in which an attorney general finding and a car moving toward officers would have been central to the defense.