Settlement brings sheriff ’s ’16 payouts to $2M

Bradshaw agrees to pay $300,000 to the family of a mentally ill man fatally shot by a deputy in 2014.

WEST PALM BEACH — By agreeing to pay $300,000 to the family of a mentally ill man who was shot to death by a Palm Beach County sheriff ’s deputy two years ago, Sheriff Ric Bradsaw has approved spending nearly $2 million in tax money this year to settle exces- sive-force lawsuits.

The 2016 amount of $1.96 million eclipses the $1.7 million the agency spent to settle similar lawsuits in the previous 16 years, a Palm Beach Post analysis found.

The latest settlement, which is awaiting final approval by a federal judge, is for the 2014 shooting death of Tinoris Williams west of West Palm Beach. He was shot in the head by Deputy Ernest Cantu, who claimed the unarmed 31-year-old man violently attacked him and tried to grab his gun when Cantu arrived at Williams’ apartment building near Palm Beach International Airport to continue a burglary investigation.

Like nearly all police-involved shootings, Cantu’s actions were deemed justified by the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office. But a lawsuit Williams’ mother filed on behalf of her son’s two children claimed Cantu had no reason to shoot and instead was carrying out a threat he made to her to “make sure he took Tinoris off of the streets.”

Like others who have lost loved ones to deputies’ bullets, Vickie McNeal Williams blamed Bradshaw for creating an atmosphere that encourages deputies to use deadly force. She also claimed in the lawsuit filed by Miami attorney Jasmine Rand that Bradshaw has failed to train deputies how to deal with the mentally ill.

Having arrested Williams before and having had him involuntarily committed under the state’s Baker Act, Cantu knew who he was dealing with, Rand claimed in the lawsuit. Yet, Cantu returned to Williams’ apartment alone on April 7, 2014, without notifying dispatchers, after he and another deputy investigated a report of a burglary earlier that day.

“The fact that Defendant Cantu ... entered Mr. Williams’ apart-