INDIANAPOLIS — Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Officer De'Joure Mercer, whofatally shot and killed Dreasjon Reed in May 2020, has dropped his complaint against the NFL, his lawyers say.
The complaint was filed in June 2021in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Indiana.
It said the NFL's social media posts and campaign including Reed caused Mercer to suffer "severe emotional and reputational injury in his personal and professional capacities," emotional distress, personal physical injury and millions of dollars of damages and financial losses throughout his life.
According to the complaint, on Sept. 11, 2020, the NFL published a video a part of its "Say Their Stories" campaign. The video included the names and pictures of Reed, George Floyd and others.
During the video, the NFL also mentioned the NFL would honor the "victims of social injustice" by wearing their names on their hats and helmets and tell their stories. Reed's name was included on the list of 87 names players could wear, though, according to the complaint, no players did.
"After filing the case, we learned that due to National Football League Enterprises’ business structure, our case lacked diversity of citizenship among the parties. This made the Indiana federal court the incorrect jurisdiction," Todd McMurtry, co-council for Mercer, said. "So, we properly dismissed the case without prejudice."
McMurtry and co-counsel Guy Relford say they are considering options at this time.
"This is a common problem with LLCs and is a fairly complex issue to explain, so I won’t. Needless to say, this happens from time to time," McMurtry said.
