Suit claims police wrongfully killed woman in highway confrontation

Updated 4 p.m. | Posted 9:36 a.m.

The family of a woman shot by police on Highway 212 in Eden Prairie last year has filed a federal civil lawsuit accusing police of wrongfully killing her.

The lawsuit claims 34-year-old Dawn Pfister was either sitting or lying down and posed no threat to officers when she was shot.

Pfister and her boyfriend, 36-year-old Matt Serbus, led police on a high speed chase in a stolen car that ended on Highway 212.

According to the complaint, Chaska police Sgt. Brady Juell and three other officers shot Serbus because they believed he was trying to stab Pfister with a knife.

Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigators said Pfister was shot after she picked up the knife Serbus had been holding and refused to put it down. A grand jury cleared the officers of wrongdoing.

Attorney Robert Bennett, who is representing Pfister's family, said he's seen one unedited squad car video.

"The un-redacted video shows she's seated on the ground when she's shot three times in the chest. You can see the bullets go through her."

The suit asks for at least $5 million in punitive damages, disciplinary action to be taken against Juell and for the Chaska Police Department to implement changes in how it trains officers in the use of deadly force.

The Chaska city administrator declined to comment on the lawsuit, which names Juell and the city as defendants.

Pfister lived in Wisconsin, and was a single mother of two young children. She was one of three women shot and killed by law enforcement officers in Minnesota since 2008. The rest of the 60 people shot by officers were men.

The BCA released this squad video of the incident. Warning: It ends before shots are fired but it contains profanity.