Father sues City of Columbia, officers in son’s shooting death outside downtown nightclub

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The father of Quillan Jacobs, who was shot and killed by Columbia police in 2021, filed an amended petition this week in his wrongful death lawsuit against the officers and the city.

Alfred Jacobs Jr. filed the wrongful death lawsuit Nov. 13 against officers Turner Schuster and Gardner Pottorff, the City of Columbia and the Columbia Police Department. CPD was not named as a defendant in the updated complaint.

The lawsuit accuses Schuster and Pottorff of excessive use of force and wrongful death after they shot Quillan Jacobs 13 times in the early morning of Nov. 14, 2021. The petition also accuses the City of Columbia of depriving Quillan Jacobs of his constitutional rights.

The officers were cleared in the shooting by prosecutors in May 2022.

Five bystanders were also injured by gunfire in front of the now-defunct Vibez Nightclub on Fifth Street, in what was described by police as a “mass casualty event."

Police said officers heard gunshots and saw two people shooting at each other, according to previous reporting. Police claimed – in a video posted online earlier this year – that Quillan Jacobs pointed a gun at officers while lying on the ground after he fell while running away.

Pottorff was also named this week in an excessive use of force case filed by Lee Martin. Pottorff resigned earlier this year.