Los Angeles to pay US$2 million in police killing of homeless man

LOS Angeles agreed to pay US$ 2 million to settle a civil lawsuit over the fatal police shooting of a homeless man in 2015 that went viral in an online video and fueled a US debate on police tactics, a lawyer for the man’s family said.

The settlement came shortly after a federal jury in Los Angeles found that two police officers in the civil suit were liable for the death of 43-year- old Charly ‘Africa’ Keunang, said Dan Stormer, a lawyer representing Keunang’s family.

“The defence made an offer which we accepted. It was US$ 2 million,” Stormer said in telephone interview.

The eight- person jury found that Officer Francisco Martinez had used unreasonable force against Keunang and that his superior, Sergeant Chand Syed, had failed to intervene, Stormer said.

The jury cleared a third officer, Daniel Torres, in the deadly March 2015 incident.

A spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department said it would not comment on a civil lawsuit. A spokeswoman for Mayor Eric Garcetti had no immediate comment.

Keunang, a native of Cameroon, was shot as he scuff led with officers responding to a report of an attempted robbery outside a Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles’ Skid Row, a downtown area with one of the highest concentrations of homeless people in the United States. — Reuters