A federal civil rights lawsuit was filed on behalf of Khalif Cooper – a Black man left paralyzed after being shot by a Paterson police officer last June. That lawsuit was filed last week.

Police were breaking up a party in Paterson on June 11, 2022, when they heard gunfire. Seconds later, Officer Jerry Moravek sees Cooper running.

Moravek follows him for a bit, orders him to drop a gun and then shoots him as he runs away. An investigation later found that Cooper did not have a gun on or near him when he was shot.

"We have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on [Cooper’s] behalf with our goal being that Paterson (and other urban communities like Paterson) are forced to implement sweeping changes with how officers are trained in how the police interact with our citizens,” an attorney for Cooper wrote in a statement.

The attorney says that Cooper and his family’s lives have changed forever due to the shooting.

“We don’t stop fighting for him until we get the justice Khalif and his family deserve,” the attorney wrote.

Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh declined to comment on the lawsuit but challenged the state Office of the Attorney General earlier this year. He defended the officer and said that he did have the authority to fire.

The attorney general’s office took over the Paterson Police Department this past March.