College Station reaches agreement to share information with family in police shooting lawsuit
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) -A temporary agreement has been reached with the City of College Station in a lawsuit filed by the family of a man killed by police earlier this year.
22-year-old Mark Hopkins was shot and killed by a College Station police officer in his home on Spring Loop during the execution of a search warrant on February 8.
Police said Hopkins was shot after he first fired a gun at officers who entered the home during a knock-and-announce operation, but the family says police have not shared all body camera videos. At the time of the lawsuit, attorneys representing the family told us they were seeking to “uncover the full truth about what led to the untimely and unjustifiable death.”
In a statement shared by Michael Patrick Doyle, the family attorney says they agreed to cancel a hearing set for this month after the city agreed to share additional information related to the incident.
“We met with the department and its lawyers several weeks ago, and they agreed to provide some of the information requested. In return, we agreed to cancel the current hearing that was set for December 8 and reset it, if we cannot after review reach an agreement as to what additional materials should be required to be produced. I anticipate that by the middle of next month will know where we are at collectively,” said Doyle.
In the lawsuit, the family claimed that police submitted a false statement to a local municipal court to obtain the raid warrant. They also accuse the police of not providing complete access to “incident reports and investigative documents, including the complete and unedited body camera footage of all CSPD officers involved in the warrant, the underlying raid, and the shooting of Hopkins.”
The family also claims College Station Police provided an “abbreviated and highly edited” version of the body camera footage.
The city did not release any details on the new agreement but did acknowledge it.
“The City of College Station and the Hopkins family lawyers have agreed to share information with each other under a confidentiality and protective order signed by the judge,” said Colin Killian, College Station Public Communications Director.
KBTX has also requested to view body camera footage multiple times, but our requests have been denied. We also reached out to the courts in late November to get an update on the case but were told “all documents in the case have been ‘sealed’ by the court.”