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https://nypost.com/2018/06/01/family-awarded-just-4-cents-for-mans-death-by-cop/
Family awarded just 4 cents for man’s death by cop
A Florida family was awarded just four cents after a jury found a local sheriff partially liable for the death of a 30-year-old man who was shot by a police officer while inside his garage.
The family sued officer Christopher Newman and Sheriff Ken Mascara alleging wrongful death for the 2014 shooting of Gregory Hill,
according to CNN.
Hill, a father of three, was shot by Newman three times after partially opening the garage and then closing it.
Police were investigating a complaint of loud noise when they arrived at the residence.
Newman claimed Hill was brandishing a firearm at the time. The officer was not charged with a crime.
The jury decided that Newman was not liable and that Mascara was 1 percent responsible for the death. Hill, the jury decided, was 99 percent responsible for his own death.
Hill was found with a gun in his back pocket.
The jury awarded damages as $1 for funeral expenses and $1 for each off Hill’s children —7, 10, and 13.
Because the jury found the chief only 1 percent responsible, the family received only 4 cents.
Cops claimed Hill was drunk at the time that he was killed.
The chief
released a statement that said “Newman was placed in a very difficult situation and like so many fellow law enforcement officers must do every day, he made the best decision he could for the safety of his partner, himself and the public given the circumstances he faced.”
The family’s attorney, John Philips, decried the verdict,
“That a black child’s pain is only worth a dollar is exactly the problem with the plight of the African-American right now. This says, black lives don’t matter,” he said.