Keonte Furdge, a Black man who was detained by police in his own home, has filed a lawsuit against the city of Monona, Wisconsin and two officers.
WKOW reports that Furdge was held by police who pointed guns at him in June after one of his neighbors reported him sitting on the steps of the home he had just recently moved in. The two officers the 23-year-old has filed a lawsuit against are Jared Wedig and Luke Wunsch, who turned up to his home and believed it might have been a burglary. They reportedly announced their presence upon arriving at the scene, entering the house with guns drawn when they discovered the front door was unlocked.
When he was greeted by the officers, he was placed in handcuffs. He informed them that he was renting the home from the son of the recently deceased owner shortly after, and he was released and issued an apology from the officers. The woman who reported Furdge told officers in her call that the home had been vacant, as the owner had recently died at the time. She also said he was African American, although this information allegedly wasn't given to the officers who were dispatched to the scene.
The lawsuit Furdge has filed seeks to "vindicate the violation of Furge's constitutional rights," pushing for change by "punishing the defendants for their egregious conduct with the hope that the punishment is significant enough to prevent this from happening again in the future, so that a person can move into a formerly vacant house in the City of Monona and sit on his front porch without having to fear that the police will break in and shoot him."
