The family of 23-year-old Lazarus Wilson, of Dumfries, Va. – who was shot and killed by a D.C. police commander last summer at the Wharf – said Friday that they will continue fighting to get “justice” for Wilson. On Thursday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. announced that it was not pressing charges against the police commander who shot him, Lt. Jason Bagshaw.

Andrew Clarke, the family’s attorney, said they will be filing a lawsuit against Bagshaw and the Metropolitan Police Department in a few weeks for wrongful death and excessive force. He did not specify possible damages, saying no amount of money would be enough for the family.

“Even firing Bagshaw is not going to satisfy us,” he said. “Because Mr. Wilson’s not going to be here.”

Clarke lamented that the U.S. Attorney’s office chose to “take this decision out of the hands of District residents.”

“This is becoming a narrative that Black people in America know all too well: that our lives don’t matter,” he said. “That cops are more important than the men and women they are sworn to protect. That we are a footnote, a statistic, disposable.”

Bagshaw was off-duty when he killed Wilson, who was holding a gun. Police have said Wilson was involved in an armed robbery. But Clarke said Wilson took out his gun to protect his friend —  who told police that they were being robbed by another armed individual — and that the use of force was not justified. Local activists have said Bagshaw was already known for using more force than necessary.

“Mr. Wilson was the one who needed assistance that night,” Clarke said. “Standing where Mr Bagshaw was standing, all he saw was another Black man with a gun.”

Wilson’s mother, Tanya Wilson, said the decision not to press charges was “heartbreaking” but that she is still “in fight mode,” saying she stood over her son’s grave and promised she would fight for him.

She said she learned that the office was declining to press charges from her grandson’s mother, and that she has not heard from the mayor or the chief of police.

“My son has died in your city. And you don’t even have enough respect for my son or me to even contact, to even give your condolences to this day,” she said.

Last Sunday – Feb. 19 – would have been Wilson’s 24th birthday. Tanya Wilson, told reporters that her son had “the prettiest smile,” that he would light up the room when he walked in.

“Every day I miss that smile,” she said. “And I have to look at my grandson when he asks me where’s his daddy at. He actually goes to the window when I come to visit him, and he looks for his daddy, and I don’t know what to tell him.”

Shortly before he died, she said, he’d just purchased a new apartment. She said her son used to lie on her bed and promise that he would buy her her own house, that she wouldn’t have to worry about cleaning it because he would hire someone to clean it for her. He knew her struggle, she said, as a mother of eight.

“I just ask that you guys continue to support us, and continue to stand with us,” she said.