Wednesday, 9 Oct 2024

Family of Los Angeles Teenager Killed by Deputy to Receive $3.75 Million in Settlement

The family of Anthony Weber, a Los Angeles teenager who was shot and killed last year after being chased by two sheriff’s deputies, will receive $3.75 million under a settlement that county officials approved this week.

The death of Anthony, 16, did not lead to criminal charges against the deputies involved. But in a lawsuit filed last year, family members alleged that they had violated the civil rights of an unarmed teenager.

The Sheriff’s Department has said that Anthony had a handgun, even though no weapon was found at the scene after he was shot.

A year after the Feb. 4, 2018, shooting made national headlines, Anthony’s family members still disagree with officials about virtually every aspect of the episode and the investigation, his father, John Weber, said.

“I think there’s a cover-up here,” he said in an interview on Wednesday, the day after the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved the settlement. “That’s just the way they do business.”

The shooting was among several that have raised questions about how law enforcement officers treat people of color — especially in Los Angeles, a city with a fraught history of police brutality, including the 1991 beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles Police Department officers, which sparked riots.

Gangs are still common in the neighborhood of South Los Angeles where Anthony was killed. But crime rates have improved since the 1980s and 1990s, when the crack epidemic and street violence claimed or devastated many lives.

In Los Angeles, settlements similar to the ones reached by Anthony’s family include the $1.5 million received by the family of Ezell Ford, an unarmed black man who was fatally shot in 2014, and a $4 million settlement with the family of Brendon Glenn, an unarmed homeless man who was shot and killed in 2015.

In the case of Anthony’s death, a county counsel recommended the $3.75 million settlement to the board of supervisors this month “due to the high risks and uncertainties of litigation.”

Mr. Weber said he was not happy with the agreement reached by the county because his son was gone and the deputy who shot him was not charged.

“I think we got screwed,” he said. “I think we really got screwed.”

On Feb. 4, 2018, two sheriff’s deputies responded to a 911 call about a black man in a black T-shirt who, the caller said, had pointed a handgun at the caller, who was passing by in a vehicle.

Officers encountered Anthony at an apartment complex; he ran as they approached, and the deputies chased him. According to county officials’ summary of the episode, both deputies saw that Anthony had a gun, and at one point, the teenager stopped running, turned around and appeared to reach for a weapon at his waistband.

One of the deputies fired 13 times, and Anthony was hit “several times” and fell to the ground, the summary said. A crowd gathered in the apartment courtyard, and the officers tried to maintain order. Once paramedics arrived, Anthony was pronounced dead.

Deputies did not find a weapon on him, and the Sheriff’s Department has said that someone in the crowd probably took it.

Mr. Weber said his son did not have a gun. He said that his son was shot more than 13 times, including multiple shots to the back, and that officials have been secretive about the investigation since it began.

“No gun was found at the scene, and the area was secured by the deputies, and it would have been impossible for anyone in the crowd to have taken the gun,” Gregory A. Yates, a lawyer for the family, said Wednesday. “Their defense for shooting young Anthony was fabricated.”

At a news conference the day after the shooting, Capt. Christopher Bergner of the Sheriff Department’s Homicide Bureau said Anthony was “known as a local gang member in the area” and had failed to follow deputies’ instructions just before he was shot.

Jim McDonnell, the former county sheriff, has also defended the deputies involved.

“As you can imagine, until you are at one of these scenes, you don’t have an appreciation for just how chaotic they get, how dangerous potentially,” he told KPCC, a public radio station, last year about the deputies’ failure to find a gun. “You don’t know which additional threats are in the environment, either.”

The Sheriff’s Department did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. Lawyers representing the department in the lawsuit declined to comment.

Tim Arango contributed reporting.

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