(KRON) — Despite nearly two dozen 911 calls, Oakland Police Department officers and Alameda County probation officers failed to intervene before a father of four was shot to death by his neighbor, according to a lawsuit filed this week.

The wrongful death lawsuit was filed on behalf of the family of Miles Armstead. Armstead was shot to death on May 1, 2020 as he was moving out of his recently-sold home, according to the suit. Armstead, his pregnant wife, and their children moved out to escape months of relentless harassment from a squatter who lived next door, Jamal Thomas, attorneys wrote.

“Miles was literally cleaning up the front yard of the house he had sold in fear of Jamal Thomas when Thomas chased him down and shot him,” the lawsuit states.

While squatting in 2019 and 2020, Thomas threw rocks at the Armstead family home, threatened to burn it down, and injured Armstead’s wife. Armstead called 911 at least 23 times within six months, according to attorneys.

“Mr. Thomas had obvious mental health issues which contributed to him experiencing violent, uncontrollable yet persistent outbursts,” the suit states.

When Oakland police officers responded to some the 911 calls, officers “complained” that they were understaffed, overworked, and that incidents were not high-priorities, the lawsuit states.

One OPD officer told the neighbors that they were “acting like 12-year-old girls, both of you guys!” according to the lawsuit. Attorneys claim inaction by police emboldened Thomas to continue targeting the Armstead family home.

Defendants listed in the lawsuit include the Oakland Police Department, Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, and the Alameda County Probation Department.

Spokespersons for OPD and the City Attorney’s Office declined to comment to KRON4. “The Oakland Police Department does not comment on pending litigation,” OPD public information officer Kim Armstead said.

Armstead, 44, was a wealth management banker at Fremont Bank. He began building a new chapter for his wife and children when he purchased a home at 2901 76th Avenue in Oakland in 2017.

The lawsuit states, “The elation the young family experienced when they embarked on homeownership quickly soured approximately two years after the Armsteads moved in. Their neighbor, Mr. Jamal Thomas, began a relentless campaign of terror and harassment against the family. Mr. Thomas terrorized the Armsteads with broken windows, verbal threats, physical attacks, and eventually killed Mr. Armstead due to the failures of the Oakland Police Department, the County of Alameda, and the Armsteads’ neighboring landlord who permitted, emboldened, and ultimately not only placed the Armsteads in harm’s way but significantly increased the danger and fanned the homicidal flames burning in Mr. Thomas’ mind.”

Thomas and his family were evicted from their longtime home in August of 2019. Two months later, 46-year-old Thomas returned to the house as a squatter, despite the eviction.

A pattern of harassment by Thomas began on Thanksgiving Day in 2019, when he frantically banged on the front door of the Armsteads’ home and attempted to break in.

“Unfortunately, this was just the first incident in a six-month sequence of increasingly harassing and threatening behavior directed at the Armstead family. The Armsteads faithfully called and reported the incidents to the police. Nevertheless, defendant officers working for the Oakland Police Department failed to make an arrest, detain, and/or curb the behavior,” attorneys wrote.

The harassment and assaults escalated so severely that the Armstead family boarded up their home in an effort to protect themselves, attorneys wrote. They also obtained a restraining order against Thomas.

In March of 2020, two months before Armstead was shot to death, Thomas was taken into custody briefly for making threats. He was released from jail under the supervision of the County of Alameda Probation Department. According to the lawsuit, probation officers failed to ever follow up with Thomas as part of his pretrial supervised released conditions.

Thomas is currently being held in Santa Rita Jail in Dublin on murder and assault charges. He is scheduled to appear in court Friday.