A FEDERAL CIVIL RIGHTS & WRONGFUL DEATH LAWSUIT HAS BEEN FILED

UPDATE: A FEDERAL CIVIL RIGHTS & WRONGFUL DEATH LAWSUIT HAS BEEN FILED

There has been a major development in the fight for answers about the death of Jason Corey Kilzer.

On July 31, 2026, Jason’s daughter, Shelby Paige Hedrick, and his mother, Sheila Denise Kilzer, filed a federal civil-rights and wrongful-death lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, Eastern Division, Case No. 1:26-cv-01170.

The complaint names individual law-enforcement officers as well as Henderson County, Madison County, the City of Lexington, and the City of Jackson.

The allegations in the complaint are extremely serious.

Among other things, the lawsuit alleges that Jason was unarmed, had his hands raised, and was complying with officers’ commands when he was shot multiple times in the back. It further alleges that Jason’s mother witnessed the shooting from approximately thirty yards away.

The complaint also alleges that after Jason was shot, officers staged or altered the scene, that a police K-9 was released onto Jason after he had been declared dead, and that a firearm was placed or moved toward his body afterward.

Those are allegations that will have to be tested through the court process. The filing of a complaint is not a judicial finding that the allegations are true, and the defendants will have an opportunity to respond.

But the filing makes the need for the evidence even more urgent.

The complaint states that Henderson County has produced body-camera footage from the operation, but that the footage produced does not capture the shooting itself. It further alleges that the available footage includes officers saying they did not see a gun on Jason before the shooting.

The lawsuit also states that Jason’s family sought bodycam and dashcam footage for nearly a year and that, as of the filing, responsive footage or investigative records had still not been produced by several of the agencies involved.

That is why this petition matters.

We are not asking the public to decide the lawsuit.

We are asking the agencies that possess the evidence to release all legally releasable body-camera and other video footage so the evidence can speak for itself.

If the government’s account is accurate, the footage may support it.

If the footage raises questions, those questions deserve answers.

Either way, transparency should not require a grieving mother and daughter to fight agency by agency, year after year, simply to see the evidence surrounding the death of their loved one.

Please continue signing and sharing the petition:

✍️ Sign here:
https://c.org/6s4BS5HYfT

Release the footage.
Explain any missing footage.
Preserve the evidence.
Let the facts speak for themselves.

Thank you to everyone who has signed, shared, asked questions, and refused to let Jason’s death simply disappear from public attention.