The complaint from attorney Amir Makled praised the gunman, Ali Naji, as a ‘truly remarkable individual’ who should have faced ‘deescalation’ techniques rather than lethal force
A Democratic nominee for the University of Michigan’s Board of Regents filed a $10 million “wrongful death” lawsuit on behalf of a gunman who was killed while trying to shoot up a police station during a Christmas toy drive, court records show. The complaint from Dearborn attorney Amir Makled said the gunman, who was shot and killed by a police officer after his gun jammed, was a “truly remarkable individual” whose “heart was big, his spirit unbreakable and his impact on everyone he met immeasurable.”
Makled, who secured the Democratic Party’s nomination for the University of Michigan’s board earlier this month, represented the family of deceased attempted cop-killer Ali Naji in a federal lawsuit against the city of Dearborn in 2023. Video footage from the incident showed Naji entering the City of Dearborn Police Headquarters on Dec. 18, 2022, wearing a hat and a surgical mask. Naji immediately pulled out a handgun from his waistband, aimed it at the front desk officer, and pulled the trigger.
The gun jammed, and Naji attempted to fix it by reloading the magazine and pulling back the slide to rechamber another round, according to the footage. During these few seconds, the desk officer, Corporal Timothy Clive, pulled out his weapon and shot Naji, killing him.
A 2023 investigation by the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office found that Clive “acted in lawful self-defense and in the defense of others.”
But Makled argued otherwise. He claimed in his filing that Naji “did not pose a physical threat to [Clive’s] safety or that of other officers or civilians” because Clive was sitting behind a bullet-resistant acrylic desk window at the time. The complaint also said Clive should have been aware that Naji was suffering from an unspecified mental illness and did not mention that Naji had a gun and tried to shoot the officer.
In the complaint, Makled argued that Clive neglected to use “deescalation” techniques for dealing with mentally ill people, such as “Be honest and polite. Introduce yourself and attempt to obtain the other person’s name,” and, “Remain calm and avoid overreacting. Express genuine concern and understanding.”
The complaint also included extensive praise for Naji, noting that the attempted cop-killer “loved soccer,” had “recently married,” and was a “man who lived his life to the fullest, always smiling, and full of love whose life was lost at the young age of thirty-three, just as he was about to embark on the most exciting chapter of his life.”
Makled demanded $10 million in “compensatory damages” from Clive and the city of Dearborn, alleging that Clive had used “unlawful deadly force” in shooting Naji.
The city of Dearborn maintained that Clive’s shooting was justified, arguing in its response that “no case holds that a plaintiff may ambush a police officer, attempt murder, and expect not to be shot.” The city also argued that the fact that Clive was behind acrylic glass at the time of the attempted shooting was irrelevant, because he “obviously could not have allowed Naji to start shooting up the lobby. Doing so would have been a complete abdication of his sworn duty.”
The defendants noted that the police department lobby was busy that day with civilians dropping off toys for the “No Child Without a Christmas Toy Drive.”
“[C]learly Naji posed an immediate, ongoing threat not only to Clive, but to anyone who may have walked into the lobby, including other police officers, civilian staff, and the general public—such as the families who had been stopping by the police station throughout the day in support of the department’s toy drive,” said the city of Dearborn. “It is only by the grace of God that the lobby was empty when Naji arrived and that it remained empty throughout this absolutely stunning encounter.”
Dearborn accused the plaintiffs and their attorneys of violating Michigan state laws against false or frivolous court claims. The defense noted that the plaintiffs’ lawyers repeatedly failed to mention in their first and amended complaints that Naji “was armed or that he tried to shoot Clive” even as video footage was “made available to the public via Youtube” and the “City of Dearborn showed the footage to Plaintiff and his counsel,” according to court filings.
U.S. district judge F. Kay Behm tossed the lawsuit, stating that the “force used by Clive was reasonable as a matter of law.” In 2024, Makled filed an appeal on behalf of Naji’s estate. The appellate court also sided with the city of Dearborn, arguing that “Clive’s use of deadly force was objectively reasonable.”
While defendants in criminal cases are legally entitled to an attorney, this right does not apply to plaintiffs filing a civil lawsuit, meaning Makled took it upon himself to participate in the case.
Makled did not respond to a request for comment.
The University of Michigan Board of Regents nominee’s legal career has included other controversial cases. As the Washington Free Beacon reported last week, he represented an alleged ISIS terrorist who is on trial for allegedly plotting to shoot up gay nightclubs last fall. Makled withdrew as that alleged terrorist’s attorney in February, about a month after launching his campaign, because his client could no longer afford to retain him. Before leaving the case, Makled argued that the charges were part of an Islamophobic smear campaign.
Makled has faced scrutiny over his past statements on terrorism. The Free Beacon reported earlier this month that he shared since-deleted X posts celebrating late Hezbollah leaders as “martyr[s]” and called on the Iranian regime to “show no laxity” in its attempts to destroy Israel. Less than two weeks before the Democratic Party nominated Makled, he joined a Senate campaign rally to introduce far-left candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who told staffers he wanted to avoid making a public statement about the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei because “there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad” about his death.
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