City pays $215K to suicidal man blinded by police rubber bullet
SAN JOSE >> A man blinded in one eye by a rubber bullet fired by a police officer in 2015 will receive $215,000 from the city of San Jose to settle an excessive-force lawsuit, authorities said. At the time, the man was threatening suicide by holding a knife to his own throat.
Benjamin Cooper, 31, sued the city following the Dec. 15, 2015 encounter, outside the ShopN-Go at South Jackson and Alum Rock avenues in East San Jose. He is currently serving a prison sentence in Michigan, where he was convicted last year of assaulting two police officers in 2017, according to state correctional records.
Cooper asserted in federal filings that he did not pose a threat to anyone’s safety but his own, and that San Jose police did not attempt to de-escalate the situation, in accordance with their training in dealing with a person who is experiencing a mental-health crisis.
City Attorney Rick Doyle wrote in a memo to the City Council, which approved the settlement Tuesday, that the negotiated payout was the prudent avenue “to avoid the risks inherent in litigation.” The payment will be paid out
from the city’s claims reserve fund, and includes Cooper’s attorney fees.
According to police and the lawsuit, the plaintiff was in the store and threatening to hurt himself with a knife, prompting a store clerk to call 911. Officer who responded to the call escorted the store’s other occupants to safety. Cooper followed them outside and reportedly paced back and forth with the knife against his neck.
Both police and the plaintiff agree that the officers repeatedly ordered Cooper to drop the knife and that, at some point, the officers fired “less than lethal” rubber rounds at Cooper, who was hit in his left leg, chest, and right eye. He permanently lost vision in that eye, which the lawsuit contended exacerbated the anxiety and panic attacks that Cooper already suffered from.
When the lawsuit was filed, experts on law enforcement told this news organization that officers had a moral and legal obligation to respond to the the risk Cooper posed to himself and others. Doyle echoed that sentiment, and said Tuesday that some of the rationale for the settlement on the city’s part had to do with Cooper’s severe injury from the encounter.
“The concern was the permanent loss of an eye as a result of a less than lethal projectile,” Doyle wrote in an email.
Che Hashim, one of the plaintiff’s attorneys, said besides seeking some financial recovery, one of the primary aims of the lawsuit was to prompt authorities to improve their responses to situations like the one with Cooper.
“My co-counsel Sam Lasser and I are pleased to have been able to represent Mr. Cooper in a very trying circumstance, and would hope the result of this lawsuit goes beyond compensation for Mr. Cooper,” Hashim said in a statement. “We are hopeful that SJPD and all law enforcement agencies will continue to develop and implement procedures aimed at ensuring the safety of members of our communities who are dealing with emotional disturbances, and who threaten to harm themselves, but indicate no desire to harm anyone else.”