Lawsuit filed over fatal Dearborn police shooting of woman near mall

DEARBORN, Mich. – A lawsuit seeking more than $10 million has been filed against a Detroit suburb and a police officer, nearly seven months after a 31-year-old woman was killed near a shopping mall.

Janet Wilson's family says she was the victim of excessive force last Jan. 27. Police say Wilson was shot in her car in Dearborn after fleeing from Fairlane shopping mall.

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Police said shots were fired because officers feared Wilson would run them over with her car, a Chevrolet HHR. But the lawsuit, filed last week in federal court, claims Wilson was not a threat to officers or the public.

An email seeking comment from Dearborn was not immediately answered Tuesday.

The lawsuit says one of the officers had been reprimanded months earlier for aggressive tactics at the mall.