POPLARVILLE, MS (WLOX) -
A Slidell man shot and tased by Poplarville police officers won a legal victory Thursday. Kirmon Warren settled a civil rights lawsuit against the police department and the city of Poplarville for an undisclosed amount.
Warren filed the suit alleging improper action by officers who stopped him at a roadblock in March 2009.
"I was unjustly tasered and I was unjustly shot," Warren told WLOX News just moments before the case was scheduled to go to trial in Pearl River County Circuit Court.
Though Warren was ready for his day in court, severe weather Thursday morning forced the judge to postpone the case. After that happened, the two sides reach a settlement.
"I would have liked for my case to have been heard," Warren said. "I would have loved for it to be heard, but at the end of the day, I want justice."
The case began when Warren was stopped at a road block on Highway 53 on March 5, 2009. He wasn't suspected of a crime, but said when police tried to get him out of his car, he was still buckled and the car was still in drive.
Warren said the officers believed he had a gun and was resisting arrest. He was tased and then shot. Almost three years later, most of Warren's physical injuries are gone, but the emotional pain remains.
"It's been hard. Don't nobody know unless you've been shot and almost lost your life. I deal with emotional stress, mental stress daily. It's not a day that I wake up I don't think about what happen to me. Every time I look in the mirror, I'm reminded of what happen to me."
Warren's mother, Mary McNeil, said the case was never about money.
"It's about justice. He can't sleep, he's terrified... Nobody should have to live like that."
McNeil too, said she was ready for the case to end.
"I just want this to be over and doesn't happen to no one else's child. It's my child this time, but you know what? It could be somebody else's child the next time," an emotional McNeil said.
WLOX News called Poplarville Police Chief Charlie Fazende for a comment Thursday, but he did not return our calls.
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