New investigation sought in shooting

— LITTLE ROCK (AP) — The family of a 67-year-old man fatally shot by an off-duty Little Rock police officer in 2010 wants a new investigation into the shooting after a former police chief and a current assistant chief said in sworn depositions that investigators didn't adequately consider an autopsy report.

The depositions obtained by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette were attached to a letter Michael Laux, an attorney for the family of Eugene Ellison, sent Friday to Pulaski County Prosecuting Attorney Larry Jegley asking for a new criminal investigation into the nearly 6-year-old shooting. The autopsy report says two bullets struck Ellison in the chest at downward angles, while Officer Donna Lesher had said Ellison was standing when she fired. Ellison's family says an accident reconstruction expert believes the downward angles contradict Lesher's statement.

Lesher and off-duty officer Tabitha McCrillis were working as apartment complex security guards when Ellison was shot on Dec. 9, 2010.

Both were cleared of wrongdoing by Jegley's office and the police department.

"He was not standing upright when he was shot, correct?" Laux asked former Police Chief Stuart Thomas in the August deposition.

"No, it does not appear so," Thomas replied. "It's — it is an element that should have been considered, yes," Thomas replied to Laux's next question, about whether that would matter when ruling a shooting justified.

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