A civil rights lawsuit has been filed in federal court claiming police opened fire at a fast food restaurant in Berkeley two years ago without cause or provocation, killing two men. The lawsuit has been filed by the widow of one of the men. Yolanda Beasley claims the officers should never have fired at her husband, Ronald Beasley, who was a passenger in the car driven by Earl Murray. Both diedfrom the gunshot wounds. Both were black. The police officers are white. Protests erupted in the St. Louis black community afterward as critics charged the officers with racisim. Police were after Murray, a suspected drug dealer. Police say they opened fire when the car lurched toward them. Neither man was armed.
