DENVER -- The family of a 16-year-old has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a Colorado corrections officer.
In April, Alexis Mendez-Perez and his friends broke into a vacant home on East 51st Place and threw a party.
A resident in the area, 46-year-old Desmond Manning, called police.
When officers arrived, the teens fled.
Mendez-Perez and his friend, Andy Munoz, jumped over a fence and took off through Manning’s backyard.
The lawsuit states Manning was waiting on the back porch armed. He flipped on a porch light and fired five times, shooting Mendez-Perez in the back and Munoz in the leg. Mendez Perez died.
“My brother was not trying to harm anyone, he is the last person to cause harm on anyone. That guy needs to pay for what he did,” Ana Mendez, Alexis's sister, told Denver7.
The Denver District Attorney declined to press charges against Manning because she said there wasn’t enough evidence to convict.
Manning told investigators he didn’t want the men coming into his home.
The Colorado Department of Corrections confirms he was fired in July but would not say why.