Attorneys for the officers and city defendants told the jury in their opening statements that Thomas was playing games with police and using his son as a “pawn.”
Lawyer Richard Jolley told the jury that, despite Thomas’ promise at the end of four tense hours of negotiations that he would let the boy go — even taking a backpack of clothes and a car seat onto the front porch — he had no real intention of doing so.
“He had used his son as a bargaining chip,” said Jolley, who referred to the child as a “hostage” and questioned whether Thomas had planned to use the boy as a “human shield.”
“Leonard left Officer Brian Markert no choice but to shoot,” he said.
It was discovered after the shooting that Thomas was not armed, the
News-Tribune
reports.