Jada Elizabeth Johnson’s daughter is excelling in kindergarten, absorbing lessons like a sponge and earning high marks that remind her family of Jada. But she still has hard moments, her great-grandfather Rick Iwanski said. The 6-year-old has anxiety, especially at bedtime, when dreams sometimes turn into nightmares of July 1, 2022, when she watched a police officer fire 17 bullets, killing her mom.
Days before Thanksgiving last week, Johnson’s family faced another legal blow when a federal judge dismissed their lawsuit alleging excessive force, wrongful death, and emotional distress. Johnson, 22, was killed in her grandfather’s living room by Fayetteville, North Carolina, officer Zacharius Borom more than three years ago, and prosecutors never brought charges. Her death highlights the persistent risks Black communities face when mental health crises intersect with policing.
This disgusted Iwanski, he said in a phone interview with Capital B on Tuesday, after U.S. District Judge Terrence W. Boyle’s dismissal of the lawsuit on Nov. 25, ruling that Borom was protected by qualified immunity. The doctrine shields law enforcement officers from personal liability for misconduct while on duty, meaning Borom and other responding officers cannot be held legally at fault for what Boyle described as the “split-second judgments” that led to Johnson’s death.
“I’m pissed, but resolved to get this done,” Iwanski said in response to Boyle’s decision. He plans to meet with his attorneys on Friday to figure out their next steps. He does have an option to refile the lawsuit that challenged whether all law enforcement officers involved handled Johnson’s case properly, according to the judge’s decision.
The judge issued his ruling months after the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously struck down the “moment-of-threat” standard, which had long allowed officers to justify force based solely on the split second they perceived danger. The new directive instructs lower courts to examine the entire sequence of events leading up to a shooting in both new cases and those still active, such as Johnson’s.
In his decision, Boyle found that the officers reasonably believed Johnson, who was armed with a gun, posed an immediate threat to Sgt. Timothy Rugg — who also responded to the scene and is a named defendant — and therefore Borom’s use of lethal force did not violate her civil rights. The incident was recorded on the officers’ body cameras, which the judge leaned on throughout his ruling.
“Judge Boyle seems to have used an older doctrine, but never mentioned the doctrine being changed,” Iwanski said about the judge’s 15-page decision. “They have to look at everything now, not just how the officer feels.”
Johnson’s family lawsuit was previously overseen by U.S. District Judge James C. Dever III until Aug. 25, when it was transferred to Boyle, according to online records. Three months to the date, the lawsuit was dismissed. Capital B has reached out to the Boyle’s civil case manager, who referred inquiries to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina’s clerk’s office. Peter Moore, the clerk, said in an email to Capital B that “Judge Dever has not retired. The case was reassigned to help balance workload.”
Johnson was one of 185 Black women killed in encounters with law enforcement since 2013, according to Mapping Police Violence. She’s also among 102 cases in which the officer involved faced no known criminal charges — a group that includes 49 Black women who reportedly showed signs of mental illness before their deaths.
Neither officer called for the department’s Crisis Intervention Team, officers certified with specialized mental health training, to the Iwanski home. In June, the Fayetteville City Council voted in favor of a $2.04 million budget for an Office of Community Safety, an initiative that provides civilian assistance for mental health calls to reduce the risk of violent interactions involving law enforcement and the public.
The shooting and the legal battle
Iwanski and his wife, Maria, watched Johnson die in front of them. In interviews with Capital B, his voice broke as he described the girl who grew up in their care — basketball in hand, dreaming of becoming a model.
On July 1, 2022, they did what they had always done: protect their family. They tried to shield their then-2-year-old great-granddaughter as Johnson, in crisis, called 911 again and again.
Days before the shooting, Johnson had reported to police that her abusive ex-boyfriend attempted to break into the home, according to the family’s April 2023 lawsuit. In the report, she “expressed heightened distrust and anxiety” toward the responding officers, which triggered a mental health crisis, according to the lawsuit.
The family argued that officers exceeded their authority by not calling the department’s Crisis Intervention Team when they arrived around 9:30 p.m. to initially arrest Johnson for allegedly misusing 911. Boyle, the judge, ruled the policy leaves the decision to officers, and found that Borom and Rugg acted within their authority by persuading Johnson to voluntarily seek treatment and arranging an ambulance. As emergency responders took minutes to arrive, Johnson’s anxiety and distrust grew. She drew a gun, refused to hand it over, and at one point allegedly aimed it at an officer while threatening suicide.
When Rugg tackled her to the floor to disarm her, Borom fired the first seven of 17 bullets. He fired nine more as her hand moved near the gun, and a final shot after Rugg secured it. Johnson was pronounced dead before 10 p.m.
“The first round of bullets did not deter Johnson from reaching for her gun,” the judge wrote. “Borom acted reasonably in continuing to shoot during the matter of seconds it took for Rugg to gain complete control of the gun and safeguard it from Johnson.”
The ruling does not cite the U.S. Supreme Court precedent in Barnes v. Felix, which rejected the “moment-of-threat” defense for an officer seeking qualified immunity after using deadly force during a 2016 traffic stop in Houston.
Boyle, who was appointed by former President Ronald Reagan, has also faced scrutiny from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. In April, U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephanie Thacker wrote that an individual convicted of a 2021 robbery must be resentenced because Boyle failed to properly inform them of their right to appeal. The higher court wrote that Boyle “with increasing frequency, disregarded our precedent regarding procedurally reasonable sentencing hearings,” calling it a “miscarriage of justice that cannot remain unaddressed.”
Borom remains on active duty, according to public records.
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