GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — A judge dismissed a lawsuit in a murder-suicide case that ended with a child shot and killed by his own father.
The heartbreaking case near Stanly made headlines two years ago.
Cyrus Blakney’s mother said police knew the father threatened to kill his children by setting the house on fire.
His twin sister escaped during a standoff.
Channel 9’s Ken Lemon talked to an attorney who said winning a case like this is rare.
[ PREVIOUS COVERAGE: 2 killed, 1 hospitalized in apparent murder-suicide in Gaston County, police say ]
Police say Russell Blakney held his twin son and daughter at gunpoint in October of 2023 at their home on Brentwood Lane.
Attorneys for their mother wrote in a lawsuit that she believed officers would protect her children.
The lawsuit said officers knew their father “threatened to burn the children alive”, but he managed to leave the house and “retrieve a gasoline can and a bulletproof vest from a nearby shed.”
The lawsuit also said the SWAT team had training the day before and “stood idle” because they were “fatigued.”
Hours later, the 11-year-old daughter Piper escaped the burning house with help from firefighters. Police say her twin brother Cyrus was shot and killed. Their father died by suicide.
On Friday, a judge dismissed the lawsuit against the Gaston County Sheriff’s Office, County PD and Belmont and Gastonia Police.
Civil Attorney Bill Moore is not involved in the case. He has defended police and sued them. He said these cases are harder to win than many other lawsuits against police.
“It’s a higher bar, if you will,” said Moore. He said officers are often given a good faith immunity if they are not violating protocol or obviously acting in a negligent way.
“We have to give them some protection to make the decision,” said Moore. He said it’s hard to prove this wouldn’t have happened if they acted sooner. “Even more difficult to prove that an inaction was a breach of the duty.”
Moore said the mother’s attorneys can still appeal the judge’s ruling, but overturning a judge’s dismissal is also hard to win in appeals court.
We are checking, but we haven’t heard of the mother’s plan to file an appeal.
VIDEO: 11-year-old survives after father, twin brother die in suspected murder-suicide
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