Cobb County moves to dismiss suit over fatal PIT maneuver
Cobb County is asking a judge to throw out a lawsuit alleging it is liable for the death of a 21-year-old driver fleeing a county police officer who used a PIT maneuver to end the high-speed chase.
Boston Thomas died shortly after 3 a.m. on May 19, 2024, after being ejected from the Lexus sedan he was driving south on Ga. 280 on the Atlanta side of the Chattahoochee River, the Cobb police incident report shows. The Lexus rolled multiple times after being hit from behind by the patrol vehicle of on-duty Cobb police officer Connor Gehan as both vehicles were traveling close to 100 mph, per the report. Thomas was the only occupant of the Lexus.
Minutes earlier, Thomas had fled a traffic stop initiated by Gehan after the officer noticed problems with the lights on the Lexus and saw it roll through a stop sign, the report shows. It says Thomas initially pulled over for the traffic stop but then drove through a red light and briefly stopped again before speeding off.
Thomas’ parents filed a lawsuit against the county last month, claiming there was no need for Gehan to pursue their son at high speeds or use a PIT maneuver, a law enforcement technique in which a pursuing officer uses their vehicle’s front bumper to touch the rear bumper of a suspect’s vehicle to cause the front car to spin and stop. The parents said their son hadn’t committed any serious crime or posed a threat to the public.
In court filings made public late Tuesday, the county sought to dismiss the lawsuit, saying it is shielded from liability as a government entity and that Thomas caused his own death by fleeing a lawful traffic stop.
“When a PIT maneuver is implemented to stop a fleeing suspect, it is the suspect’s reckless flight, not the PIT maneuver, that constitutes the proximate cause of the resulting injury or death,” the county said, citing Georgia law.
A reliance on PIT maneuvers has contributed to Georgia having the highest death rate in police pursuits of any state in recent years, an investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found.
The county also asked Cobb County State Court Judge Diana Simmons to pause any evidence sharing in the case until she decides whether to grant its dismissal request.
Thomas’ parents haven’t met the standard required under Georgia law to strip the county of the “sovereign immunity” it has in litigation as a government entity, Cobb argued.
“Even assuming all of plaintiffs’ allegations are true (which they are not), their claims against Cobb County are jurisdictionally barred because plaintiffs have not proven a waiver of the county’s sovereign immunity,” the county wrote. “To waive sovereign immunity, plaintiffs must establish facts that show officer Gehan was negligent in the use of his county vehicle. Plaintiffs have not done so.”
Lawyers for Thomas’ parents did not comment Thursday on the county’s filings.
Terrica and Ramonne Thomas previously told the AJC they filed their case against the county hoping to get answers to questions they still have about their son’s death.
They acknowledged their son was driving on a suspended license and not wearing a seat belt, but said that didn’t warrant the use of a PIT maneuver, nor did his alleged traffic infringements that led to the chase.
“It just seems so extreme,” Terrica Thomas said. “We feel like we lost a kid so senselessly. As time goes by, the loss feels bigger.”
Gehan had not yet spoken with Boston Thomas or called in the Lexus’ license plate number before the pursuit began, according to the incident report.
The Thomases said Gehan did not know their son’s license was suspended or that he was not wearing a seat belt until after the PIT maneuver, citing the police report, footage from the body-worn cameras of Gehan and other officers and the dash camera in Gehan’s patrol vehicle, and the recorded conversation in which Georgia State Patrol officers informed the couple about their son’s death, captured on their home’s security camera.
In its motion to dismiss the case, Cobb County did not assert its own version of the incident. It summarized the parents’ allegations about the pursuit and wrote in a footnote that it “assumes they are true for purposes of this motion only.”
A county spokesperson declined to comment on the case because it is pending. Gehan is not a defendant in the lawsuit. He did not respond to a previous inquiry about the case.