{"id":463006,"date":"2010-03-23T15:14:03","date_gmt":"2010-03-23T19:14:03","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c630a53ef01310fd0d9ce970c"},"modified":"2010-03-23T18:02:21","modified_gmt":"2010-03-23T22:02:21","slug":"inglewood-to-pay-2-45-million-to-settle-claim-in-2008-police-shooting-death-updated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/463006","title":{"rendered":"Inglewood to pay $2.45 million to settle claim in 2008 police shooting death [Updated]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lanow.byoune\"<\/img><\/a> <\/p>\n

Inglewood will pay $2.45 million to settle a civil lawsuit brought the families of\u00a0three men\u00a0who were\u00a0shot<\/a>, one of them fatally,\u00a0by police officers\u00a0who mistakenly believed gunfire was coming from the vehicle the three were\u00a0riding in, according to a tentative settlement.<\/p>\n

Michael Byoune<\/a> died from his wounds, and driver Larry White and passenger Chris Larkin were injured in the shooting by Inglewood\u00a0officers on May 11, 2008 (Mother’s Day) outside a Rally’s restaurant.\u00a0Jacqueline Seabrooks, chief of the 190-member police department,\u00a0described the incident at the time as "a very tragic outcome."<\/p>\n

Carl Douglas, an attorney representing the victims and their families,\u00a0said he was\u00a0pleased by the settlement, adding that\u00a0it brought "some measure of justice" to the victims. "Three young men who had done absolutely nothing wrong had their lives\u00a0changed forever," he said.<\/p>\n

"No amount of money will ever bring back Michael Byoune to his\u00a0family, but hopefully, through his death, the city will make changes that will help all of the citizens of our community," Douglas said. "For that reason, his death will not be in vain."<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Inglewood spokesman Ed Maddox confirmed the tentative settlement "pending the completion of final documents."<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Byoune case\u00a0was the first in series of\u00a0fatal shootings of unarmed suspects that year\u00a0that drew community rebuke and calls for reform. leading to an inquiry by the Los Angeles County Office of Independent Review and to changes in training at the police department. Most significantly, the U.S. Justice Department launched\u00a0a civil rights probe. Federal officials told the city they are continuing with their probe and plan close scrutiny of specific incidents.<\/p>\n

On July 1, 2008, Ruben Walton Ortega, a 23-year-old alleged gang member, was shot and killed by an Inglewood officer when police said he reached into his waistband as he ran from an officer. Police said at the time that the officer believed Ortega was armed. Seabrooks later said he was not.<\/p>\n

Three weeks later,\u00a0police shot and killed Kevin Wicks, 38, on July 21 after officers said Wicks raised a gun at Officer Brian Ragan, who was responding to a report of a family disturbance at Wicks’ apartment complex. Ragan was one of two officers involved in the Byoune shooting.<\/p>\n

Then on Aug. 31, 2008, police shot and\u00a0killed <\/a>of Eddie Felix Franco, a 56-year-old homeless man who had a realistic-looking toy gun in his waistband.\u00a0Officers fired at least 47 rounds at Franco when he appeared to reach for the gun. A nearby motorist was struck and grazed in the head by one of the bullets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A Times investigation, published more than two months before the federal inquiry began, found that Inglewood officers repeatedly resorted to physical or deadly force against unarmed suspects. According to law enforcement records reviewed by The Times, Inglewood police shot and killed 11 people, five\u00a0of them unarmed, between 2003 and 2009.<\/p>\n

— Andrew Blankstein<\/p>\n

Photo: Candles stand\u00a0at a memorial for Michael Byoune shortly after he was shot and killed by Inglewood police in 2008. Credit: Francine Orr \/ Los Angeles Times [Updated at 12:49 p.m.: <\/strong>A previous version of this post contained a photo that was misidentified.]
<\/br><\/em><\/p>\n

More:<\/strong> A Times Investigation:<\/a>\u00a0Deadly Force at the Inglewood Police Department. By Times staff writers Jack Leonard, Ari B. Bloomekatz and Victoria Kim.<\/p>\n

\nMore breaking news in L.A. Now:<\/strong><\/p>\n

LAPD seeks accomplice in jewelry district
\nkidnapping-robbery<\/a><\/p>\n

O.C. deputy who crashed in frontyard of county
\n supervisor’s Villa Park home charged with drunk driving<\/a><\/p>\n

Years of racial slurs ‘scarred’ Japanese
\nAmerican gunman charged in teacher’s slaying, attorney says<\/a><\/p>\n

Standard Hotel pleads guilty to dumping pool
\nchemicals down rooftop drain<\/a><\/p>\n

UC panel discusses proposals to make
\nuniversity more efficient<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inglewood will pay $2.45 million to settle a civil lawsuit brought the families of\u00a0three men\u00a0who were\u00a0shot, one of them fatally,\u00a0by police officers\u00a0who mistakenly believed gunfire was coming from the vehicle the three were\u00a0riding in, according to a tentative settlement. Michael Byoune died from his wounds, and driver Larry White and passenger Chris Larkin were injured […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5471,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-463006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5471"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463006\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}