MINNEAPOLIS — The family of a Minnesota man who was killed by a state trooper during a traffic stop filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Wednesday, alleging that the fatal shooting was unjustified and unlawful.

The lawsuit names Troopers Ryan Londregan, who shot Ricky Cobb II, and Brett Seide, who made the initial stop. Londregan, a white officer, was already facing murder charges for killing Cobb, a Black man, in what has become a politically charged case in the city where the murder of George Floyd by police nearly four years ago sparked global protests demanding racial justice.

“Ricky Cobb was a productive citizen of this community, and we will not let you vilify him,” family attorney Bakari Sellers said at a news conference. “We will not let you punish him in his death. We want him to be allowed to rest in peace. And today is another step in the journey of bringing those officers who caused his death to justice.”

Londregan’s lawyer, Chris Madel, disputed the allegations, which parallel the charges in the separate criminal case.

“We will fight the civil lawsuit with the same vigor that we’ve fought the criminal matter,” Madel said.

Family attorney F. Clayton Tyler told reporters they named only the two troopers in the lawsuit because the state would be immune under federal law. But they don’t rule out filing a separate action later in state court naming the State Patrol, after they gather more evidence, or updating the allegations in the federal lawsuit.

The sequence of events alleged in the lawsuit mirrors the criminal complaint. Seide and one other trooper pulled the 33-year-old Cobb over on Interstate 94 last July 31 because the lights were out on his car. Seide checked the Spring Lake Park man’s record and found he was wanted for violating a protection order in neighboring Ramsey County.