Two Colorado attorneys have filed a federal lawsuit against a Farmington, N.M., police officer in the shooting death of a 21-year-old Navajo man.

Attorneys Bobby Duthie and Steven Boos of Durango claim Clint John's civil and constitutional rights were violated when Sgt. Shawn Scott shot him four times in a Wal-Mart parking lot June 10, 2006. They are requesting a jury trial and unspecified damages for John's family.

The lawsuit names former police Chief Mike Burridge, the Police Department, the San Juan County Sheriff's Office and Sheriff Bob Melton as defendants.

Scott was called to the business about a report of a man beating a woman. The Sheriff's Office has said John was shot after he charged at Scott with the officer's baton. The lawsuit, however, contends that John was not abusing the woman. Instead, he was leaning against his parked pickup truck, talking with his girlfriend, who was inside the vehicle with their 4-year-old daughter, the lawsuit states.

Scott admittedly did not activate his in-car police camera or sirens when he arrived on the scene. He has been cleared of any wrongdoing in the shooting, and was promoted to sergeant earlier this year.

Scott's actions leading up to and during the shooting investigation were emblematic of a pattern of conduct in law enforcement in the area marked by an indifference to the civil rights of American Indians, the lawsuit states.

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