Vicki McKenney, the wife of the Windham man who was shot and killed by a Cumberland County sheriff’s deputy last April, has sued the deputy, the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office and the Windham Police Department.

On the morning of April 12, Cumberland County sheriff’s Deputy Nicholas Mangino shot Stephen McKenney, a 66-year-old retired bus driver, in his driveway, when he walked out of his 2 Searsport Way home holding a .357 Magnum revolver. Vicki McKenney had called 911 prior to the shooting to report that her husband, who had been suffering from severe back pain for months, wanted to shoot himself because he could not stand the pain.

In the complaint, filed Feb. 5 at Cumberland County Superior Court, McKenney’s attorney, Daniel Lilley, charges the defendants with violating Stephen McKenney’s civil rights and inflicting emotional distress upon Vicki McKenney, who witnessed the killing from inside a Windham police department cruiser.

“As Mr. McKenney was walking down his driveway looking around with his gun to his side, making no threats or threatening movements, without warning, provocation, and without making any attempt to communicate with him or de-escalate the situation, Deputy Mangino unilaterally opened fire with his rifle aimed at Mr. McKenney, firing two shots, the first striking the dirt beside the driveway and the second striking Mr. McKenney in the head killing him,” Lilley wrote.

The complaint contains nine counts, including violations of the 4th and 14th amendments, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Maine Civil Rights Act, as well as counts of negligence, wrongful death, assault, and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress. The suit requests a jury trial, as well as compensation to the “highest extent allowable by law” for Vicki McKenney’s financial losses, emotional distress and attorney’s fees.

In an October notice of claim, Lilley estimated that McKenney suffered a minimum of $2 million in damages related to “severe psychological and financial injuries resulting from her husband’s death.”

Lilley could not be reached for comment by the Lake Region Weekly’s deadline Wednesday.

Peter Marchesi, the Waterville-based attorney representing Mangino and the sheriff’s department, dismissed Lilley’s characterization of the event.

“Deputy Mangino handled this call in an exemplary fashion, notwithstanding the terribly tragic outcome,” Marchesi said. “Obviously, it’s an extraordinarily difficult loss for Mrs. McKenney, and Deputy Mangino and everyone at the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office recognizes that.”

“In our considered judgment, there is no factual or legal basis to challenge the actions of Deputy Mangino,” Marchesi added.

Ed Benjamin, the Portland-based attorney defending the Windham police, said he was confused by the complaint, which contains a variety of broad counts against the three defendants.

“He lumps everybody together and just said, ‘The defendants did this, the defendants did this,’” Benjamin said. “It’s hard to look at his complaint and try to figure out what his real allegations are against the town of Windham police.”

“Nobody from the town of Windham used force against him – only Mangino did,” Benjamin added.

According to the complaint, Mangino, as well as Windham officers James Cook and Seth Fournier, arrived at 2 Searsport Way a few minutes after Vicki McKenney’s 911 call. Cook, Fournier and Mangino entered the residence, saw Stephen McKenney holding a handgun, and then left the house without incident, according to the complaint. At that point, Vicki McKenney, who had been standing in the garage, was escorted into Fournier’s cruiser and driven down the driveway, away from the house. Then, Stephen McKenney emerged from the home, “walking in and out of the garage and into his driveway while holding his gun.”

All three officers wore body microphones. According to the complaint, audio recorded three verbal commands asking McKenney to put down the gun. McKenney then returned into the garage for another five minutes. According to the complaint, there was no effort during the five minutes to de-escalate the situation or communicate with McKenney.

“Mrs. McKenney had requested that she be allowed to call Mr. McKenney earlier but was denied that request by the law enforcement officers,” Lilley wrote.

Finally, Stephen McKenney emerged out of the garage and onto the driveway, holding his gun at his side. According to the complaint, the microphones recorded “no verbal commands or warnings or conversations of any kind” before Mangino shot McKenney.

In the complaint, Lilley argues that the officers, who knew that McKenney was suicidal as a result of the 911 call, failed to follow procedures for “appropriately dealing with a suicidal individual.” Instead of attempting to de-escalate the situation, Lilley wrote, the defendants treated the situation as a “criminal standoff.”

The complaint argues that Vicki McKenney suffered intentional infliction of emotional distress, as a result of witnessing the shooting from a Windham police cruiser.

“The conduct of the defendants in needlessly and recklessly escalating the situation to an armed confrontation, failing to follow protocol and trailing, placing Mrs. McKenney in a situation where she was forced to observe and listen to events as they unfolded, and shooting twice and killing Mr. McKenney as he was walking down the driveway, without making any attempt to negotiate or defuse the situation, and then leaving Mr. McKenney’s body uncovered and in the open for all to see for hours afterward, was so extreme and outrageous as to exceed all possible bounds of decency and must be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community,” Lilley wrote.

In a report released Aug. 21, Attorney General Janet Mills concluded that Mangino “reasonably believed that unlawful deadly force was imminently threatened against him and other persons,” when he shot McKenney.

Mills’ conclusions were based on a scene investigation, numerous interviews, and a review of video recordings from two different Windham police cruisers and a recording of a 911 call, the report said.