The family of a man fatally shot in May by police in Salinas, California, have filed a federal lawsuit against the city, claiming racial profiling has played a part in police killings of four Latino men in the space of five months.

The family of Carlos Mejia, killed by Salinas police on May 20, filed the federal lawsuit on December 23, in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. They claimed Mejia’s death and the fatal police shootings of three other men signified "an entrenched posture of deliberate indifference" to Latinos.

Mejia was the third man fatally shot by law enforcement in the string of four shooting deaths after Angel Ruiz, killed on March 20, and Osman Hernandez on May 9. Frank Alvarado was shot dead by police on July 7, according to the complaint.

RT