Law360 (September 3, 2026, 5:41 PM EDT) -- A relative of a 35-year-old man killed by police during a 2025 traffic stop in Northern Michigan has filed a federal civil rights suit against the City of Alpena and two of its police officers, alleging constitutional violations and gross negligence for failing to provide timely medical care to the man they shot.
In March, the Alpena County Prosecutor released the findings of a Michigan State Police investigation of the incident and said the officers were legally justified in using deadly force and declined to bring criminal charges against them.
Mark Jacobs said in his complaint that Alpena police officers failed to call for medical help or an ambulance in a timely fashion after shooting his relative, Jackson Charles Jacobs, four times and willfully escalated the situation while trying to make the arrest instead of employing de-escalating techniques.
"A reasonable officer in the same circumstances would have recognized that less intrusive means of control were available and that the use of deadly force was unnecessary under the circumstances," Jacobs said in his complaint.
Two Alpena police officers and two Michigan State Police Troopers stopped Jackson Jacobs on Dec. 22, 2025, in response to a report of a stolen vehicle matching the description of the 2007 Cadillac Escalade he was driving, according to the complaint.
According to the suit, when the state police officer told Jacobs he was under arrest and went to put handcuffs on him, Jacobs allegedly resisted, prompting Alpena officer Hunter Penney to assist with the arrest.
Mark Jacobs claims Jackson Jacobs was kicked several times by the state trooper and that Penney told the other officers that Jacobs had a knife and had stabbed him.
Alpena Police officer Aaron Kwiatkowski then asked the other officers to stand away from Jacobs so he could try to subdue him with a Taser gun. The Taser did not subdue Jacobs, who, according to the police, refused their orders to "drop the knife," prompting Penney to shoot Jacobs four times.
Penney allegedly asked three times for an ambulance to be called before, more than a minute later, calling for emergency medical services himself. EMS staff pronounced Jacobs dead at the scene.
Jacobs claims in his complaint that Penney did not have confirmation that Jackson Jacobs was in possession of a knife, did not know where the alleged knife was and did not know if Jacobs posed an immediate threat before firing the four shots that killed him. He called the force used during the traffic stop "excessive, objectively unreasonable and disproportionate to the circumstances."
Jacobs claims the other officers who watched Penney shoot Jackson Jacobs multiple times and failed to intervene violated his Fourteenth Amendment rights. He alleges violations of state assault and battery laws, claiming that the force used in the situation, including the kicking, was excessive.
Alpena Police released body camera video of the incident in December 2025, which is currently posted on the City of Alpena website.
Representatives for the parties did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.
Mark Jacobs, representing the estate of Jackson Charles Jacobs, is represented by Sarah Louise Gorski of Buckfire Law.
No information was available on Thursday about representation for the City of Alpena.
The case is Jacobs, Personal Rep et al. v. Penney et al., case number
2:26-cv-13173 in the
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
--Editing by Vaqas Asghar.
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