The family of a Muslim Marine recruit from Taylor who died in a fall at boot camp last year after allegedly being hazed and abused is suing the government for $100 million for his death, claiming “negligence on multiple levels of command.”
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit claims the Marines “fostered a culture of abuse and hazing” at the training base at Parris Island, S.C., that led to the death of 20-year-old Raheel Siddiqui in a three-story fall from a barracks stairwell in March 2016.
In the lawsuit, the family’s lawyer, Shiraz Khan of Southfield, wrote that “recurrent physical and verbal abuse of recruits by drill instructors, with a noted insufficiency of oversight and supervision” ultimately caused Siddiqui’s death.
The Marines have maintained that Siddiqui’s death, less than two weeks after he began boot camp, was a suicide, a conclusion that his family has rejected, along with suggestions that Siddiqui was somehow not prepared for the rigors of Parris Island.[…]
In the lawsuit filed by Siddiqui’s family Friday, they say that not only were Marines at Parris Island negligent but so were recruiters who suggested that they were giving Siddiqui a great opportunity while not telling him about the hazing concerns, including the alleged incident involving another Muslim recruit.
The family noted that, despite the Marines’ claims, Siddiqui never had any mental health issues or threatened suicide. Instead, they said, the Truman High School valedictorian had told family and friends he was looking forward to becoming a Marine and “will not quit no matter how hard it is.” He had spent months training with his recruiter before boot camp as well.
The lawsuit faces a difficult path forward, however. Under what’s known as the Feres doctrine, the Supreme Court decades ago decided to effectively bar suits for injuries sustained by active-duty personnel related to their service — including training. Legal experts have told the Free Press in the past that getting around that may be virtually impossible short of getting Congress to change the law somehow.