A federal court jury in Oxford, Mississippi, has rejected a $20 million civil lawsuit filed by the widow of a man who was fatally shot by police officers while they were serving a search warrant.

In the early morning of July 24, 2017, Southaven officers Zachary Durden and Samuel Maze were executing a search warrant when officers fatally shot and killed 41-year-old Ismael Lopez.

Responding police officers say that Lopez came to his front door with a gun, an act that in itself is not illegal in Mississippi. Lopez's family however disagreed with the events as described by the police, saying that Lopez was fatally killed after bullets shot were through the front door, killing her husband.

No surveillance cameras captured the event, resulting in conflicting accounts between Lopez's wife Claudia Linares, who was at home during the shooting, and the City of Southaven.

At the time the officers were executing the search warrant, Lopez was not suspected of or wanted for any crimes. Instead, police officers mistakenly arrived and executed the search warrant on the wrong house. Officers were supposed to execute the search warrant on another individual, Samuel Pearman, who lived across the street from Lopez.

After more than six years since the shooting, a jury found that the officers were not civilly liable for Lopez's death. Prior to this recent verdict, a civil verdict by a state grand jury declined to indict the officers involved.

Then-District Attorney John Champion detailed in 2018 that the officers did not announce themselves at the dwelling. According to the officers’ accounts, when they arrived at the home, a porch light went on, the front door opened, and a pit bull charged at them, causing Officer Maze to fire his gun at the dog.

According to Officer Durden, as Officer Maze fired his gun, he noticed a rifle pointing at him from a crack in the doorway. This resulted in Durden firing his gun through the front door. Durden fired four shots with one of the shots striking Lopez in the base of his skull, eventually killing him.

Following the shooting, Southaven Mayor Darren Musselwhite quickly took to the defense of his officers, saying that they had been “persecuted” and that the police department would not make any changes to its operating procedures in the belief that the officers had acted accordingly.

The verdict earlier this month seemingly concurred with the mayor's assumption of what happened, as Linares’ complaint to hold the police officers and the police department accountable was dismissed.

Tangled in the web of the tragedy was Lopez's immigration status. The case is notable because Southhaven’s legal team argued that Lopez's civil rights were not violated because Lopez was living in the United States illegally. Lopez, who is from Mexico, would have faced deportation orders and criminal charges because he was illegally in possession of the rifle. In 2020, a judge rejected the lawsuit's argument that constitutional rights apply to “all persons.”

Following the verdict for the defendant officers, Attorney Murray Wells, who represented Linares, shared, “The verdict was that the jurors did not believe that the use of force used by Officers Durden and Maze was excessive in light of all the facts that they considered.” Wells added, “There are a couple of huge factors at play. One was this unbelievable mistake of going to the wrong address and we felt it was just incompetent because they didn’t even take the time to look at the boxes. They went to the wrong side of the road, so that started this.”