Overview

• Smith’s family filed the federal wrongful death lawsuit on August 6, 2025, naming the City of Coos Bay and officers Benjamin Martin, Tristan Smith and Wesley O’Connor.
• The complaint alleges officers observed labored breathing and overdose symptoms and left Smith in a locked cruiser as one officer sent intimate texts and scrolled TikTok.
• Paramedics arrived to find Smith with a 107°F body temperature and he later died at Bay Area Hospital from hyperthermia due to methamphetamine intoxication.
• The suit charges the officers with negligence, abuse of a vulnerable person and deliberate indifference and seeks unspecified damages.
• No criminal charges have been filed and the federal case is ongoing.