$33.5 Million Awarded To Family Of Nathanael Pickett, Black Man Killed By A California Deputy

March 15, 2018

Photo via The Law Offices of Dale K. Galipo

The parents of Nathanael Pickett, a black man who was fatally shot by a San Bernardino County deputy, have been awarded $33.5 million in damages.

In 2015, Pickett was approached and chased by deputy Kyle Woods who suspected him of trespassing at El Rancho Motel where Pickett lived. After an altercation arose between the two, Woods proceeded to shoot the unarmed man in the chest. This shooting occurred just a year after Michael Brown, an unarmed black man, was fatally shot by a police officer.

August 9, 2014 Michael Brown was shot and killed by police
Rest in power!
Let us not forget…#BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/Cm9YWICpaq

— Luisa Haynes (@wokeluisa) August 9, 2017

The LA Times reports that the jury in the civil case found that the deputy was negligent by unlawfully detaining Pickett, denying him timely medical care and using deadly force. According to Dale K. Galipo, who defended Pickett’s family, the county “tried to sell a story to the jury about how the incident happened that the jury realized, through the presentation of evidence, was not true.”

Galipo also believes that the large award is “a signal that members of our community are no longer willing to tolerate these unjustified police shootings.”

In a similar incident, the family of Walter Scott, a black man who was fatally shot by an officer after a traffic stop in 2015, was awarded $6.5 million in damages. Although no amount of money could ever replace a family member, it is great to see that some form of justice has been served.

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