Mentally ill man shot by OKC police accepts $50,000 settlement
A mentally ill man shot by an Oklahoma City police officer in 2014 has accepted a $50,000 settlement to end his excessive force lawsuit against the city.
The shooting left Marquis Pegues, now 31, of Oklahoma City, paralyzed. The officer shot Pegues about 6:15 p.m. June 12, 2014, inside a laundromat at 1801 N Portland Ave., following a physical altercation between them, police reported.
The federal lawsuit was settled Nov. 28. Pegues is awaiting payment from the city.
Oklahoma City Police Chief Bill Citty said the officer didn’t do anything wrong. The shooting was found to be justified by Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater. The lawsuit, though, alleged the officer, David Jehle, didn’t receive adequate training from the city in dealing with mentally ill people in a nonaggressive manner.
The incident happened about two months before a highly publicized fatal police shooting in Ferguson, Mo., that led to repeated nationwide scrutiny of police shootings of black suspects.
Pegues is black. The officer who shot him is white. The shooting of Pegues didn’t generate any public outcry in Oklahoma City.
On June 12, 2014, police initially received a call about a man swinging a knife in front of a tattoo parlor just south of the laundromat.
Witnesses reported Pegues “disarmed himself” of the knife before running into the laundromat.
Pegues’ attorney, Mark Hammons, said Pegues is schizophrenic and was having a psychotic break at the time. Hammons said it is unclear if Pegues was off his medication or if the medication quit working.
“He was feeling intense physical pain. He was not completely oriented or rational,” Hammons said. “He was in an area with a number of people, had a knife out, was not threatening people with the knife but was swinging it around.”
Police reported Jehle, now 33, drew his firearm and entered the laundromat. Pegues initially complied with the officer’s order to go to the ground but a physical altercation occurred after the officer attempted to handcuff Pegues, police reported.
“Pegues exploded up and attacked Jehle, driving Jehle to his back. Pegues got on top of Jehle and placed his left hand on Jehle’s holstered firearm,” police reported in a court affidavit. “The suspect then began to repeatedly strike Jehle in the face with his fists and grab Jehle by the throat.”
The altercation, which was recorded by surveillance video, only lasted a few seconds. Both men are seen exchanging punches while on the floor before the officer draws his firearm and shoots Pegues. Hammons said Pegues was shot three times.
“We don’t believe the officer’s conduct was malicious but we do believe the officer’s conduct was negligent. You don’t rush in and create a situation where force becomes necessary,” Hammons said. “It doesn’t make any sense to approach someone who is not behaving rationally the same way you would approach somebody who has just committed a crime.”
Citty said the officer’s life was threatened and “he did what he had to do.”
“The officer, to this day, feels like he didn’t do anything wrong and we support him on that and the district attorney supported him on that,” Citty said. “Everybody felt like the officer did what he had to do to protect himself from any further harm.”
Citty said the officer, who began with the department in September 2011, wasn’t disciplined following an internal investigation. Jehle still is an officer, Citty said.
“Our position is it is a justified shooting,” Citty said. “I don’t want people to think that ... we’re settling this case because this young officer did something wrong. Because that’s not the case at all.”
The time, expense and emotional stress that comes with going to trial were reasons the case was settled, Citty said.
As part of the settlement, the Oklahoma City Police Department agreed to expand its training for dealing with people with disabilities. Citty, though, said the training currently in place is already adequate.
“I don’t want this settlement, what we agreed to, to leave the public, or anybody else, with the opinion that we didn’t have the proper training in place because we do. It was part of the settlement to get the case settled,” Citty said. “The bottom line is you can’t train officers to completely diagnose somebody in a crisis situation. It’s pretty dynamic. To a certain point, you have to control a situation when somebody’s acting out.”
Pegues, through his mother, Carlette Bradley, filed the lawsuit in Oklahoma County District Court last year. The lawsuit was later moved to Oklahoma City federal court.
Hammons said Bradley will receive the $50,000 as Pegues’ guardian. According to the lawsuit, Pegues was seeking in excess of $175,000.
Pegues was charged with felony assault and battery upon a police officer after the incident. The charge later was dismissed. Police reports show Pegues had been arrested multiple times on trespassing and marijuana complaints.