A man is filing a civil rights lawsuit against Suffolk County police after he says an officer opened fire on his vehicle during a traffic stop.

Al Kirby, a 49-year-old Marine Corps veteran and father of a five, has pleaded guilty to a charge of driving while impaired that stems from the 2015 incident. Kirby admits he was drinking that night, but says he can't understand the officer's actions. He believes the fact that he is African-American is what prompted the the officer to discharge his weapon.

Kirby says that when he was pulled over by the Suffolk officer, he rolled down his window, turned off his truck and placed his hands on the steering wheel. That's when he says a bullet pierced the driver's side door of his black Cadillac Escalade.

"I heard a loud pop," he recalls. "At that time I placed my hands out the window and yelled out the window three times, 'You don't have to do this.'"

Kirby's attorney, Fred Brewington, says it was a departure from standard procedure. "Having a gun drawn, in a stop such as this, is not protocol," says Brewington.

News 12 contacted Suffolk County police, but the department says it cannot comment on pending litigation.

Kirby believes his race played a role. "I felt as though the officer might have saw a person of color driving a vehicle of such, and I can't explain the rest," Kirby says.

The bullet hole has since been repaired, but Kirby says his life has been changed. "I still have nightmares. I don't sleep very well," he says. "I even yell at my kids if they slam the refrigerator door too hard, too loud -- the car door, anything of that nature, because it brings back that memory."

Kirby is suing for $15 million, and he says he wants to see changes within the Suffolk County Police Department.

"I believe [the officer] didn't have the proper training," he says. "If he had the proper training, there are different avenues and routes that he could have taken."