A white police officer in Mississippi claims racial discrimination cost him his job after he gunned down a black man who had tried to run away from him, according to a lawsuit.
Canyon Boykin's lawsuit against the City of Columbus, filed this week in U.S. District Court, alleges he was only fired following the Oct. 16 shooting because "he is white and the deceased was black."
The lawsuit reveals the officer's perspectives into the shooting, an incident that remains perplexing four months later.
Boykin, a three-year member of the Columbus police department, was part of the department's special operations group, which is tasked with patrolling high-crime areas.