UNIONTOWN, Pa. -- About 200 people participated in a march Saturday to protest the fatal state police shooting of 12-year-old Michael Ellerbe.

Members of a group called "People Against Police Violence" said they organized the mile-long march, which ended at the Fayette County Courthouse, to keep attention focused on Ellerbe's death after a Christmas Eve police chase.

Just one day earlier, a lawsuit filed in federal court in Pittsburgh alleged that Ellerbe was intentionally shot and killed. The suit also claims two state troopers lied to cover up the shooting by saying one of their guns accidentally discharged.

Ellerbe was killed while being chased by troopers Samuel Nassan and Juan Curry. The boy was running from an allegedly stolen truck that had crashed.

At a coroner's inquest, Nassan testified that he heard a gunshot during the chase and saw Curry fall, so he fired at the boy because he thought Curry had been shot. But Curry testified that his gun fired accidentally while he was climbing over a fence.

An autopsy showed that Ellerbe died after a single bullet struck him in the back and went through his heart. District Attorney Nancy Vernon decided not to pursue charges after the inquest jury recommended against it.

A law firm representing Ellerbe's father, Michael Hickenbottom, filed suit Friday in federal court alleging wrongful death and civil rights violations. In the suit, Hickenbottom claims that the troopers intentionally fired at his son, did not warn the boy to stop, concocted the story about Curry's fall and filed false reports to back up their story.

The suit also claims that two people, who were not identified, helped the troopers with the alleged coverup.

Attorney Kelly Scanlon Graham, whose firm filed the suit, said witnesses came forward after the inquest and provided information about the alleged coverup. One of those witnesses works for an undisclosed state agency, Graham said.

An attorney for Nassan said Friday that the allegations of a coverup are unfounded.

The U.S. attorney's office in Pittsburgh and the FBI are conducting a civil rights investigation of Ellerbe's death.