MEMPHIS – In a civil lawsuit over the fatal shooting of Ismael Lopez by police, an attorney for the city of Southaven argued Lopez lacked constitutional rights because of his criminal record and undocumented immigration status – an argument lawyers for the Lopez family rejected as "insane."

"Ismael Lopez may have been a person on American soil, but he was not one of the 'We, the People of the United States' entitled to the civil rights invoked in this lawsuit," wrote the attorney for the city, Katherine Kerby of Columbus, Mississippi. Kerby represents former Southaven police officer Zachary Durden, who investigators concluded fired the fatal shot.