(WASHINGTON) — The families of two Trinidadian nationals killed in an October airstrike are suing the U.S. government for wrongful death and extrajudicial killings.
In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, attorneys representing the families said the Oct. 14 attack was “part of an unprecedented and manifestly unlawful U.S. military campaign of lethal strikes against small boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean.”
The two men — Chad Joseph and Rishi Samaroo — had been fishing off the Venezuelan coast and were returning to their homes in Trinidad and Tobago when the strike occurred, according to the lawsuit.
“These premeditated and intentional killings lack any plausible legal justification,” attorneys for the families wrote. “Thus, they were simply murders, ordered by individuals at the highest levels of government and obeyed by military officers in the chain of command.”
President Donald Trump said in October that “six male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike” and the vessel was affiliated with an unnamed “designated terrorist organization conducting narcotrafficking.”
The lawsuit argues that because the strike did not occur within an active armed conflict, the laws of war do not apply.
“Instead, the rules under international human rights law and federal law regulate the government’s strikes,” the lawsuit states “And those rules protect the right to life and prohibit extrajudicial killings.”
The lawsuit alleges violations of the Death on the High Seas Act and the Alien Tort Statute, which allows foreign citizens to sue in U.S. courts over human rights violations committed abroad.
One of the victims, according to the lawsuit, 26-year-old Joseph, lived in Trinidad with his wife and three children. He frequently traveled between Trinidad and Venezuela for fishing and farm work.
According to the filing, he was fearful of the trip due to reports of U.S. military strikes in the region.
“But he was determined to return to his wife and their children as soon as possible,” the lawsuit states.
On Oct. 14, Joseph’s wife heard reports of a boat strike just off the Venezuelan coast. Because no one has heard from him since Oct. 12, the family concluded that Joseph “was a passenger on board the boat that the United States destroyed on or about October 14.”
The second victim, 41-year-old Samaroo, was a Trinidadian construction worker and fisherman, the lawsuit says. He had been working on the same farm as Joseph and planned to return home to care for his mother who was sick, according to the complaint.
“Mr. Joseph and Mr. Samaroo were two of at least 125 victims of the United States’ 36 lethal military strikes against people on boats since September 2,” the attorneys said.
The families are seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
The Pentagon told ABC News on Tuesday, “As a matter of policy, the Department does not comment on pending litigation.”
As of Jan. 27, 2026, there have been 36 total kinetic strikes with 37 go-fast boats destroyed, including 1 semi-submersible and 1 low-profile vessel; with 116 narco-terrorist deaths and 10 active searches suspended, according to U.S. Southern Command.
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