The mother of a 22-year-old man fatally shot by an FBI agent in Philadelphia in 2023 has sued, saying her son was unarmed when the agent and others chased after him and then used deadly force while seeking to arrest him.
Tahiem Weeks-Cook was shot in the early afternoon hours of Aug. 4, 2023 as FBI agents in the Nicetown-Tioga neighborhood were attempting to serve a warrant for his arrest in connection with two robberies, according to the lawsuit.
The suit accuses the agents of failing to follow best practices when executing the warrant, including by failing to surround the house they were targeting, on the 1600 block of Venango Street; declining to knock on the door and announce why they were there; and then jumping out of an unmarked van in military-style gear while carrying rifles after noticing Weeks-Cook on the sidewalk.
Weeks-Cook — who had been visiting his girlfriend’s apartment — then ran away in a panic, the suit says, and after a brief chase, an FBI agent who had followed him in a car shot him while he was “unarmed and his hands [were] visibly empty.”
Weeks-Cook was struck in the neck and stomach, the suit says, and he was then taken to Temple University Hospital, where he died two days later from his injuries.
The lawsuit, filed last week by attorney Paul Hetznecker, says the agents involved in the incident acted negligently, with deliberate indifference toward Weeks-Cook’s rights, and used excessive force because his hands were clearly empty after he had dropped his cellphone a few moments into the chase.
“At no time was [Weeks-Cook] armed with a weapon,” the suit says, nor did he pose a threat to the agents’ safety. The suit does not name any of the agents, but says seven of them were involved in various capacities.
Weeks-Cook’s mother, Stacey Weeks, of Upper Darby, said last year that she had been frustrated by a lack of answers from the bureau in the months after her son’s death.
“If you have an arrest warrant, it should not be a death warrant,” she said. “And that’s what this was for my son.”
A spokesperson for the FBI declined to comment Monday.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages.
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