LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY)-- Elsie Solomon, the mother of Deiondre Solomon, 28, who was shot and killed by an off-duty Lafayette police officer named Clayton Green when working security at a nightclub, spoke exclusively with News 10 about why she filed a lawsuit against the Lafayette Consolidated Government.
“I have good days and bad days,” Elsie Solomon said. "It's hard to get by the day. If you never lost a child, you wouldn't never know.”
Deiondre Solomon was the youngest of her two sons. She said her birthday was Tuesday, July 23 and it was difficult to celebrate still having no answers and closure on her son’s death.
"Ms. Solomon called for this lawsuit to be followed because of a lack of transparency. She tried to find out as much as she could of any mother would about what happened to her son,” John Milton, her attorney with King Milton Law Group, said. “As of this day, she still has not seen the video cams of the police officer involved and when the matters are under investigation, the excuse is because it's an investigation we can't allow you to see certain evidence and they try to maintain it.”
“It's like I can't get any answers. I can't get any answers. Nowhere of what happened and I'm still fighting to get answers,” the mother said. “I didn't hear anything. Everything is just quiet.”
According to police on April 9, 2023, Green was working security at the La Bamba Lounge. Police said Green said he fired his gun at Deiondre Solomon after allegedly witnessing him shooting at another person. District Attorney Don Landry said the officer’s action was found to be a justifiable homicide under state law through an investigation with State Police.
However, Deiondre Solomon’s mother believes differently and would like to see actual evidence of that night officer-involved shooting.
"Ms. Solomon believes that her son should not have died on that day and knowing the nature of him as a peaceful man, she does not believe he tried to shoot anyone, nor the police officer, and did not present a danger,” Milton said. “Once we get our hands on the body cams, then we should be able to get a better understanding.”
“They didn’t have to shoot him. He [Green] could have teased him. Dre [her son’s nickname] didn't kill anybody. He killed Dre. If Dre was wrong, if that was Dre bullet, let Dre go do time. He has never been in trouble before,” Elsie Solomon said.
“Of course, as with many situations, there's a lot of facts that are out there in the air and a lot of people don't want to come forward and participate in the system that might bring about justice," Milton said. "So, therefore, we have to invoke lawsuits or file lawsuits so that we can conduct discovery and almost our investigatory way of finding out what's going on. Although we know that the kind of person that Deiondre was. He was a peaceful person. He led protests for peace and justice. He was not a person that sought violence and yet she cannot rest with the things that are being said, knowing full well that there is evidence out there of what happened.”
"There's so much injustice and the way that we do policing in America and so we want to make sure that that injustice is not the case here and if it is the case here that there is accountability for the injustice," he continued.
“I'm just hoping for the proper justice for Solomon,” the mother said.
As litigation is just beginning, Milton said they are looking forward to initiating some discovery to get the information and evidence that is out there.
“We know that in our community, a lot of times people see things because we don't trust the system," Milton said. "They don't want to be involved in it and a lot of people don't want to come forward and say what they saw. We still hope that there were a whole lot of people around that club that night and a lot of people have a lot to say. We want them to know that if you see something, as the police say, say something and many people in this community see exactly what happened and if they could, we would invite them to contact me and contact my office, contact Ms. Solomon, even contact the police department, I would say, because sometimes being silent is part of the problem.”
The mother told News 10 that Aug. 25 would have been her son’s 30th birthday. LPD said Green was cleared to work in July of 2023.
Anyone with information is urged to contact the attorney at 337-548-3030 or email: JMilton@KingMiltonLaw.com
No trial date has been set yet.
