Family of T.J. Siderio, the 12-year-old shot and killed by Philadelphia police, sues the city

The family of Thomas “T.J.” Siderio, the 12-year-old who was shot and killed by a plainclothes Philadelphia police officer in 2022, has filed a lawsuit against the city and the officer who killed him.

The civil suit, filed last month, says that Officer Edsaul Mendoza shot the boy “execution style” from less than 10 feet away, and that Siderio’s death was the result of “an abysmal systemic policy failure” within the Philadelphia Police Department.

Siderio, who had endured a troubled, chaotic childhood before his death, was riding bikes with a 17-year-old friend when Mendoza and other plainclothes officers with the department’s South Task Force attempted to stop them about 7:30 p.m. on March 1, 2022.

Prosecutors have said the officers believed, based on social media posts, that Siderio’s friend had a stolen gun. The officers did not activate police lights, or call for uniformed backup, before quickly pulling up to the boys in an undercover car, the lawsuit says.

As they approached the boys, who were standing with their bikes on the corner of 18th and Barbara Streets, Siderio fired one shot at the unmarked patrol car, prosecutors said, shattering the rear passenger-side window. The boys fled in different directions, they said, and Mendoza ran after Siderio.

Siderio then ditched the gun and was no longer a threat as Mendoza chased and shot at him, prosecutors said. In all, they said, Mendoza fired three shots: the first just after Siderio fired at the car, and again as Mendoza started to chase after him. The third and fatal shot, prosecutors say, was as Siderio was lying face down on the ground behind a pickup truck — Mendoza approached the boy and shot him once in the back from less than 10 feet away, according to the lawsuit.

The District Attorney’s Office has charged Mendoza, 26, with murder. He remains in jail, awaiting a trial set to begin in May.

DA Larry Krasner said evidence showed that Mendoza, who was subsequently fired, knew that Siderio — 5 feet tall and 111 pounds — was unarmed when he shot him. In the seconds after the shooting, Krasner said, Mendoza was captured on video telling a fellow officer to look for the gun farther down the block, where it was later found.

According to the lawsuit, department directives say plainclothes officers should clearly identify themselves when approaching civilians to prevent “unpredictable behavioral responses,” and should not “routinely” make traffic stops. The suit says the officers did not have enough evidence to warrant stopping the boys.

Mendoza did not comply with these directives “because of systemic failures by the City of Philadelphia to train, supervise and discipline officers that have been involved in the excessive and deadly use of force,” the lawsuit says.

Mendoza’s crew on the South Task Force, a plainclothes unit responsible for seizing illegal guns and arresting suspected felons across South Philadelphia, had a history of creating unsafe or chaotic situations during arrests, the suit says, and had gained a reputation within the department as “cowboys” or “jump-out boys.”

The lawsuit dubbed the group a “death squad” and said members, including Mendoza, “abided by their own set of rules — their own laws — a code which allowed them to accomplish their goals ‘by any means necessary’ and to wreak terror upon the South Philadelphia community with no oversight, no responsibility, and no accountability.”

The family is seeking compensation for emotional and economic suffering. They are being represented by the Center City firms Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky, and Clearfield & Kofsky.

Representatives of the city could not immediately be reached, and Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 declined to comment.