The mother of a 26-year-old man who was purportedly shot and killed in early 2014 while in Houston police custody has pursued legal action against the city of Houston, RPI Management Company, LLC and patrolman Juventino Castro in the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division.
In a lawsuit filed Dec. 2, plaintiff Janet Baker accuses Castro of fatally shooting Jordan Baker at the time the decadent was riding his bicycle through a strip mall located at 5700 W. Little York Rd.
Janet Baker asserts her son “had not been committing no crimes at all,” stating Castro, who was working security at the RPI-owned shopping center, targeted him because he was “an African-American man wearing a hooded sweatshirt.”
She added the sweatshirt was removed from his body after Castro reportedly applied excessive non-deadly force on him, and he attempted to flee.
“That confrontation ended with Jordan Baker being murdered by the defendant Castro,” the suit argues. “Because of his status as a police officer, the defendant Castro has not been held accountable for his actions.”
According to Janet Baker, “adding insult to injury,” the officer subsequently handcuffed her son “as he lay dying, writhing in pain, on the ground behind the mall.”
The complainant further claims Houston police and RPI did not discipline Castro, but instead retained him.
It considers Jordan Baker’s death among what it alleges to be a series of police-involved shootings between 2008 and 2012 of unarmed individuals in Houston.
“The department’s failure to train and discipline officers regarding the proper use of deadly force causes, and/or encourages the use of unconstitutional deadly force by Houston police officers,” the original petition says.
Consequently, Jordan Baker’s estate seeks unspecified monetary damages and a jury trial.
Attorneys Jon Loevy and David B. Owens of the law firm Loevy and Loevy in Chicago are representing the plaintiff.
Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas Case No. 4:15-CV-3495