(AP) – A wrongful-death lawsuit claims that a St. Louis police officer charged in the fatal shooting of a female colleague while playing a variation of Russian roulette had a history of forcing other girlfriends to also play the game.
Nathaniel Hendren has pleaded not guilty to first-degree manslaughter and armed criminal action following the January shooting death of Katlyn Alix. Prosecutors say the two were drinking and taking turns pointing a gun loaded with one bullet at each other and pulling the trigger.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the lawsuit filed Wednesday by Alix’s mother in St. Louis Circuit Court contends Hendren had a “complicated psychiatric” history and that the city should have known before hiring him.
Hendren’s lawyer in the criminal case has called the death a “tragic accident.”