A wrongful-death lawsuit filed in federal court against the city of Fort Wayne earlier this month was met with denials Friday from the city's attorney.

The fatal shooting of driver Jose B. Lemus-Rodriguez on Dec. 23, 2007, by Fort Wayne Police Department Officer James A. Arnold led to a lawsuit being filed Nov. 7 seeking monetary damages.

On Friday, the city filed a response denying that Arnold used excessive and illegal deadly force. The response also said Lemus-Rodriguez was a threat to the public.

Lemus-Rodriguez was killed after police said he led them on a short car chase at up to 60 mph that began with him making a left turn at a red light. After briefly stopping for off-duty Detective Timothy Russell, Lemus-Rodriguez ran his car onto the sidewalk on Oxford Street, unable to move it forward.

Officers said they approached the vehicle with Lemus-Rodriguez in it. As Officer Michael DeLong opened the driver's-side door, Lemus-Rodriguez backed the car, with its door striking Officer Jason Crowder's cruiser and DeLong jumping out of the way. Arnold then fired three shots, according to a March 28 internal police memo.

A blood test later showed Lemus-Rodriguez had a blood-alcohol content of 0.31 percent, almost four times the legal limit, according to Fort Wayne Police Chief Rusty York last summer.

Prosecutor Karen Richards previously said she wouldn't prosecute Arnold in the incident, citing a lack of evidence of criminal intent.

Lemus-Rodriguez's family's original filing claims negligence, assault, battery and emotional distress and seeks damages for all of those counts. It said Arnold used unreasonable, excessive and illegal deadly force and that he was not properly trained or supervised.

The city's response denies all these claims.

The family asked to have a jury decide on the lawsuit.