The family of a man shot in the elbow by a Henniker officer is moving forward with a civil lawsuit he filed against the town before he died.
Aaron Cadman, 20, of Troy, N.Y., was seeking $5 million in damages, claiming he suffered emotional and physical injuries as a result of Henniker police Officer Stephen Dennis’s actions Nov. 26, 2014.
Cadman’s attorney, George Campbell III, filed the civil lawsuit against Dennis, the Henniker Police Department and the town in U.S. District Court in Concord in mid-May. Cadman has since died of a drug overdose, Campbell said Tuesday, noting that it’s unclear whether heroin, fentanyl or a combination of both caused Cadman’s death.
He had spent time at the Granite House in Derry and was sober for more than a year before he overdosed, Campbell said.
“Aaron’s shooting didn’t ultimately cause his death, but his family feels strongly that the circumstances of the shooting worked a grave injustice on Aaron. He suffered a lot,” he said.
In order to move forward with the lawsuit, Campbell plans to file a motion with the court to substitute Cadman’s name with Cadman’s estate as the plaintiff.
Campbell said he’s working with a New York attorney to establish that estate. Once he has the official paperwork, he said he’ll submit the information to the court to amend the lawsuit. Cadman died June 21 and funeral services were held in Troy, N.Y., on June 25.
In court documents, Cadman alleges that Dennis used “excessive deadly force” by firing his weapon on a state highway in Henniker the day before Thanksgiving. The bullet ripped through Cadman’s left elbow, leaving him permanently disabled and with medical bills of more than $114,000, according to the lawsuit.
Campbell maintains that Dennis’s use of deadly force was “unreasonable.” However, the state attorney general’s office found in its review of the case in January 2015 that Dennis was justified when he shot Cadman, who he mistakenly believed had a gun.
The incident unfolded during a heavy snowstorm. Cadman stole the truck, then led a police officer on a dangerous chase through Henniker, which ended with him slamming into two oncoming vehicles and being shot in the arm after refusing to remove what turned out to be a butter knife in his pocket.
At that time of the incident, Cadman was a resident of Webster Place Recovery Center in Franklin, where he was receiving treatment for heroin addiction.