The mother of a 23-year-old man who was struck by a Metro Blue Line train at the Wardlow Station in Long Beach in August filed a lawsuit today against unnamed parties who she alleges were responsible for her son’s death.

Rosa Moreno’s wrongful death lawsuit, filed with the Los Angeles Superior Court, identifies the defendants only as “Does 1 through 10” and does not state who Moreno believes killed her son or why. Moreno is seeking unspecified damages.

Her son, Cesar Rodriguez, was killed on August 29 while fleeing from an Long Beach Police officer attempting to detain Rodriguez for allegedly not paying his fare.


 

“Each of them, through their misconduct, caused Cesar Rodriguez to be struck … by a passenger train,” the suit states.

Earlier this month on September 14, Moreno and other family members held a press conference outside of Metro headquarters in Los Angeles, asking that they be allowed to see the platform video footage of what happened to Rodriguez. The family stated they do not believe the LBPD’s assertion that Rodriguez was accidently hit by the train while fleeing the officer who had stopped him for allegedly not paying his fare.

Officers were assisting Metro fare compliance officers at the platform when they attempted to detain the suspect for fare evasion, according to a Long Beach Police Department statement sent out after the incident.

“As the suspect was attempting to get away from the officer, both he and the officer fell onto the platform,” the release stated. “The suspect’s lower extremities were partially off the edge of the platform and the suspect was struck by an incoming Metro Train. The suspect was trapped between a train car and the platform.”

Firefighters sent to the scene at about 8:30PM found him stuck between a Metro train and a platform, used airbags to free him, then took him to a hospital, where he later died.

City News Service contributed to this report.

Asia Morris is a Long Beach native covering arts and culture for the Long Beach Post. You can reach her @hugelandmass on Twitter and Instagram and at [email protected].