Ryan Le-Nguyen's mugshot/Photo Courtesy of WXYZ
In June, Ryan Le-Nguyen sparked a public backlash and landed himself behind bars for allegedly shooting 6-year-old Coby Daniels in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan. The child had reportedly attempted to grab his bike from outside of his Asian neighbor’s home.
Now the child’s family has opened a lawsuit against Le-Nguyen, seeking a minimum of $4 million in damages for expenses like hospital bills and counseling for the trauma inflicted during the incident, TMZ reported.
Related Post: Jamaica Seeks Billions in Slavery Reparations from the United Kingdom
According to the news outlet, Coby’s father mentioned in the suit that Le-Nguyen had often displayed “aggressive behavior” towards children before.
As News Onyx previously reported, the child’s dad, Arnold Daniels, also claimed that he saw their Asian neighbor throwing one of his kid’s bikes away in the garbage before the shooting.
Coby was reportedly shot in his arm by Le-Nguyen after being confronted by the Michigan man with a sledgehammer, telling Fox 2 about the terrifying event, “He tried hitting me with a sledgehammer, but that’s not going to work because I’m too fast. (Then he) got a gun and BOOM shot me right here,”
Though Le-Nguyen was taken into police custody, many were upset at what they viewed as a low bond amount for the alleged crime, set initially at $10,000. After he posted bond, a motion was soon passed to increase the amount to $100,000, sending Le-Nguyen back to jail.
Le-Nguyen was hit with multiple charges following his arrest, including assault with intent to murder, according to Fox 2. However, an online petition later published on Change.org urged officials to charge him with a hate crime.
Addressing the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office, the petition
states, “This is not the first incident he has been involved in, but this is the first time he’s acted on his malicious intents. This petition is for the Prosecutors of Washtenaw county to charge him with exactly what this crime was, and that is a hate crime,”So far, the petition has 961 signatures with a goal of 1,000.