Dad Sues After Son's Electrocution Death In Brooklyn Cop Chase

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — A 25-year-old who was killed when he was electrocuted by the third rail after being chased by cops through Union Street station should never have died, a new lawsuit claims.

The family of Joseph Rene Moreira, who died last August at the Brooklyn subway stop, have filed a $35 million wrongful death lawsuit against the city and the NYPD.

Rene Moreira, who lived in Manhattan, had been on his way home from work when he had a run-in with police at the station and ended up falling on the third rail after cops stunned him with a taser gun, according to the lawsuit.

"As a direct consequence of the unreasonable excessive actions of [the officers]...[Rene Moreira] was fatally injured," the lawsuit says. "[He] was unarmed and was not a threat to the defendants or anyone else."

The lawsuit, filed by Rene Moreira's father, Guillermo Rene Moreira, claims that the family should be entitled to $20 million because the excessive force used by the officers deprived the 25-year-old of his Constitutional rights to due process and "bodily integrity." They demand another $15 million for Joseph's wrongful death.

The family doesn't know the names of cops who were involved in their sons death, but say in the lawsuit that there were two police officers and 10 detectives.

Joseph's father told the New York Post when he was first considering the lawsuit earlier this year that police had given him conflicting information about what exactly happened at the station the day his son died.

A detective first told him that Joseph had tried to rob an elderly woman, but another said he had “allegedly molested a young woman on a bus,” Rene Moriera said in court papers at the time.

He argued that “it would be totally out of character” for his son to have gotten into trouble that night since he was on his way home to say goodbye to his sister, who who was leaving for her first day of college the next day, according to the court papers.

The medical examiner's report showed that Joseph died of electrocution from landing on the third rail, but that he also had “extensive blunt impact injuries as well as cerebral edema (brain swelling),” the Post reported.

Rene Moreira's lawyer and the NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The city's Law Department said they are reviewing the claim.