The lawsuit mirrors a similar suit filed last year against the Alaska State Troopers and Homer Police and stems from a March 1, 2006 shootout in the airport parking lot in which Jason Karlo Anderson, a felon wanted on drug trafficking charges in Minnesota, was killed and his son, Jason Anderson II, then 2 years old, suffered a gunshot wound to the face that left him with severe brain damage.

Cherry Dietzmann, mother of Jason Anderson II, filed the suit in Alaska District Court in Anchorage Jan. 30, charging the U.S. Marshals office and the two marshals involved, Kevin Guinn and John Olson, Jr., with "reckless" behavior in the incident and seeking $75 million in compensation.

The incident occurred when Guinn, Olson, Jr. and four Homer police officers - Sgt. Lary Kuhns, Sgt. Will Hutt, Sgt. David Shealy and Officer Stacy Luck - tried to apprehend Anderson, then 31, by surrounding him while he was in his rental Jeep with his two children in the airport parking lot.

With the assistance of Dietzmann, who had been communicating with marshals for days before the arrest and had advised them not to attempt it with the children present, and Ty Gifford, owner of a rental car company who lured Anderson to the airport by asking him to trade out rental vehicles, police planned to use a stun gun on Anderson once he was inside the airport.

Anderson, armed with a .45 caliber pistol, used his cell phone to call Gifford from the parking lot, saying he could not come inside because he had his children with him in the car. The marshals and Homer police officers then blocked Anderson's Jeep in the parking lot with a pickup truck and an SUV.

The airport was crowded with adults and students leaving Homer for a choir tour of Italy, a fact one of the marshals later said they hadn't anticipated.

Homer Police Chief Mark Robl later said his officers were not aware and had not been told the children were in the Jeep with Anderson.

Multiple shots were fired by Anderson, marshals and police. Jason Anderson II, who was seated in a child safety seat in the rear passenger side of the Jeep, was severely injured with a gunshot wound to the head. Anderson's daughter, Darla Anderson, then six months old and seated in a child safety seat behind the driver's seat, was not harmed.

The Alaska Medical Examiner at the time, Dr. Franc Fallico, concluded Anderson died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and said Anderson Sr. shot his son in the face. Fallico and the deputy medical examiner, Dr. Stephen Erickson, determined the boy was shot in the left cheek with the muzzle of the gun placed against the skin. The boy's injury was a contact gunshot wound that could only have been fired by his father, Fallico said.

On Jan. 31, 2008, after reviewing a report on the incident by Alaska State Troopers, U.S. Attorney Jeffery Sullivan announced that no federal charges would be filed against any of the law enforcement officers involved.

"There is no question that the events of March 1, 2006, were a tragedy," Sullivan said in a press release. "But it was a tragedy of Jason Anderson's own making."

On Feb. 1, 2008, in a tort claim filed against the U.S. Government, Dietzmann's attorneys - Marion Kelly, Pam Sullivan and Philip Paul Weidner, all of Anchorage - challenged the medical examiner's conclusion that Anderson II was shot by his father.

"The medical personnel who examined the wounded infant opined Jason Anderson II was shot from the rear, to wit, from the area of the firing police officers," the lawyers said.

In March 2008, Dietzmann also filed a $12 million civil lawsuit against marshals, Homer Police, the city of Homer, the state of Alaska and Alaska State Troopers in Kenai Superior Court. In that suit, Dietzmann's attorneys alleged police or marshals knew or should have known that by attempting to arrest Anderson, they placed the children at risk, and that their actions were negligent, reckless and culpable.

Dietzmann, Kelly, Sullivan and Weidner were unavailable for comment for this story.

Michael Armstrong contributed to this story. Check back to www.homernews.com for updates.

Aaron Selbig can be reached at aaron.selbig@homernews.com.