A group of McKeesport residents who said they were illegally searched and held at gunpoint three years ago as investigators sought a man who shot a police officer filed a lawsuit Monday alleging excessive force, race discrimination and unreasonable search and seizure.

The 44-page lawsuit names as defendants the City of McKeesport and its police department, Allegheny County and its police department, as well as their chiefs and several officers.

Solomon Furious Worlds, an attorney for the ACLU of Pennsylvania who worked on the complaint, said police that night harassed and terrorized the Black community “in a way that felt all too familiar.”

He said police stopped cars without the necessary level of suspicion, searched cars and homes without probable cause, lied to residents claiming they did not need a warrant and pointed weapons at them.

“That’s illegal. And it’s not how the law works,” Worlds said. “Police can’t just pick and choose which elements of the Constitution they want to follow.”

At a news conference Monday morning just steps from McKeesport police headquarters, community advocates criticized the police response on Dec. 20, 2020, and the days that followed the shooting of Officer Geriasimo Athans by Koby Francis.

McKeesport police were called to Crawford Village that afternoon after Francis was accused of violating a protection-from-abuse order obtained by the mother of his child.

Officer Eli Tubin arrested Francis and turned him over to Athans so he could be taken to the McKeesport police station. Athans, however, failed to pat down Francis, who was handcuffed behind his back.

When Athans got Francis out of his car, the suspect’s still-cuffed hands were in front of his body, and he was holding a revolver.

He shot Athans twice.

Francis fled, resulting in a nine-day manhunt before he was arrested in Clarksburg, W.Va. Francis pleaded guilty to attempted homicide, possession of a prohibited firearm and other charges on May 30. He was sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison.

In the days after the shooting and during the manhunt, McKeesport residents complained of being pulled out of their cars, held at gunpoint and having their homes searched without permission.

Monday’s lawsuit also includes claims for civil conspiracy, intentional infliction of emotional distress and municipal liability. Additional defendants include McKeesport Officer Dante Diberadin; former McKeesport Officer Brenda Sawyer, who then worked with the state Attorney General’s office; and 20 unnamed police officers.

The lawsuit was filed by Courtney Thompkins, Ezra Dixon and Francis’ mother, Kim Neal.

McKeesport city solicitor Jason Elash on Monday afternoon said officials there had not yet seen the lawsuit.

“While the city does not comment on pending litigation, we feel very strongly that nothing inappropriate occurred,” Elash said in a statement. “My legal opinion is that our police department will be vindicated in this matter.”

McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko said he empathizes with anyone who feels their rights were violated.

“I believe proper police protocol was followed in the pursuit of a fugitive who was a danger to everyone in this community,” Cherepko said in a statement. “This was not an investigative case. This was an active shooter scenario. This suspect was still in possession of a deadly weapon after already proving an unbridled willingness to use it.”

A spokeswoman for Allegheny County said she could not comment on pending litigation.

At Monday’s news conference, Thompkins said that in the aftermath of the shooting, police had stopped her partner’s car at gunpoint and they also went to their home. She estimated more than 20 officers surrounded her house with guns drawn.

“They told me they needed to come in,” she said. “I let them in my house because, who wouldn’t? You’ve got not just handguns, you have rifles, everything pointed at you.”

Thompkins showed the officers around and told them no one else was home.

“While I’m trying to explain that, they still have guns drawn on me,” she said.

Finally, Thompkins said, a sergeant gave the officers an order to put down their guns.

“I didn’t understand why there were so many, why they couldn’t just knock on the door and say, ‘do you mind? We have somebody on the loose.’ Why didn’t you do any of that?”

The lawsuit said that the only connection Thompkins had with Francis was that he attended an after-school program where she worked when he was 5 or 6 years old. At the time of the incident, Francis was 22.

“At no point did any police officer present Ms. Thompkins with a search warrant or an arrest warrant for Mr. Francis, nor did any officer articulate any basis for believing that Mr. Francis might be found in her home. In fact, (police officers) never said they were even looking for Mr. Francis,” the lawsuit said.

Thompkins chose to be part of the lawsuit to hold the police officers, chief and mayor accountable.

“These are the people that are supposed to serve and protect,” she said. “When you wear that badge, you’re supposed to honor that badge and protect your community. And they didn’t do that that day.”

According to the complaint, Dixon was driving home with friends that night when they approached a roadblock.

When Dixon attempted to avoid traffic by turning in a different direction, the lawsuit said, “a police car raced to cut him off, pulled him over and demanded to search the car.”

An officer claimed to have smelled marijuana to fabricate a reason for the search without probable cause or reasonable suspicion, the lawsuit said.

“Mr. Dixon and his two fellow passengers are all much older than Mr. Francis, and do not resemble Mr. Francis. The only similarity is that they are Black men,” the lawsuit said.

The officer who initiated the search, Diberadin, threatened to assault Dixon after he refused to hand over his identification and also threatened to tow his car. Although Dixon did not grant permission to search his car, the officers did so anyway, the lawsuit said.

A short time later, the officer told Dixon he had outstanding warrants for his arrest. Eventually, the lawsuit said, the officers acknowledged that wasn’t true and allowed Dixon and his passengers to leave, although they followed them home.

Francis’ mother, Kim Neal, said in the lawsuit that her son did not live with her and was an adult at the time, but that didn’t stop police from harassing her and her family during the manhunt, including a series of searches at gunpoint.

In one instance, officers surrounded her home at night with guns drawn. In addition, they raided her daughter’s home, detaining her husband and holding her four grandchildren outside in the cold.

Neal said that police put several members of the family under surveillance, and she returned home one evening with police blocking her from entering her home with guns drawn because they claimed they “saw movement” inside, the lawsuit said.

They stood outside for hours before her son gave officers a key to enter the house. They were inside for three hours before Neal was allowed to go back inside.

Police never presented a warrant, the lawsuit said.

During the manhunt, officers repeatedly pulled Neal and her family over.

Fawn Walker Montgomery, the founder and CEO of Take Action Advocacy Group, said police from as many as 10 departments searched for Francis. As they did so, she heard repeated complaints that officers were pointing their weapons at children and older adults as they searched them.

“We cannot let their behavior go unchecked,” she said Monday. “One officer gets shot does not erase the Fourth Amendment rights of Black people in the Mon Valley.”

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