Posted on 06/01/2018 9:05:26 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
The family of a man who was shot dead by a US sheriff's deputy have been awarded $4 (£3) in damages following a wrongful death lawsuit.
Gregory Vaughn Hill Jr, 30, was shot through his garage door in 2014 by the deputy in St Lucie County, Florida, in response to a noise complaint.
He was found with an unloaded gun, but whether he was holding it is disputed.
A jury ruled that no excessive force was used and Mr Hill was responsible for his own death because he was drunk.
A judge asked the jury to decide if Mr Hill's constitutional rights had been violated and, if so, whether his family should receive compensation.
After hours of deliberation, the jury awarded $1 to his mother for funeral costs and $1 to each of his three children.
"It's heartbreaking," his fiancée, Monique Davis, told the New York Times. "There are a lot of questions I want to ask."
"I think they were trying to insult the case," the family's lawyer, John Phillips, added. "Why go there with the $1? That was the hurtful part."
The jury found that Christopher Newman, the sheriff's deputy who shot Mr Hill three times, had not used excessive force.
It also ruled that Mr Hill was 99% responsible for his own death, meaning the sheriff's department is only required to pay 1% of the damages. This would leave the family with four cents.
This amount is expected to be reduced to zero because Mr Hill was intoxicated, Mr Phillips says.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
wait, shot THROUGH a CLOSED door? Or just through the opening?
Cha Ching. Somebody hit the lotto.
“Gregory Vaughn Hill Jr, 30, was shot through his garage door in 2014 by the deputy in St Lucie County, Florida, in response to a noise complaint.”
That seems outrageous. There’s got to be more to this than that.
Open side door?
There is, indeed, more to the story than was given in this article - quite a bit more. Here is local news story published shortly after the incident:
“Gregory Vaughn Hill Jr, 30, was shot through his garage door in 2014 by the deputy in St Lucie County, Florida, in response to a noise complaint.”
That seems outrageous. There’s got to be more to this than that.
*****************************************************
Of course there is more to this. But it’s the leftist BBC reporting so, like all they do, they slant their reporting to close to the breaking point to fit their narrative.
That does clarify a bit.
“if he pulled the garage door down that’s not a threat to your life.”
Evidently it is, because for him, it was.
Pretend he’s a Waco biker.
Even the contemporary story is a little unclear as to whether the guy was shot through the door, or as the door was closing. If it is true that he raised a gun at the police then I think the police were justified in shooting him. If the door was being closed as the action started & ensued then it might be expected that one or more of the rounds the police fired passed through the door.
If someone was pointing a gun at me as he closed a garage door, I certainly would not think to myself: “Well, there you have it. The danger is over. He closed the door”.
At any rate, at least we know it was not some unprovoked, blind-shooting through a closed door, as might be inferred from the phrasing used in the BBC article about the lawsuit.
Reading the story there is more to it, but on the balance it sounds like the police get the worse of it.
They seem to have shot him while the door was closing or immediately thereafter because it was most convenient for them. I’d be really interested as to what evidence there was as to the rifle being brandished at the police. Body cams seem a really good idea.
I felt like my life was in danger so I killed him is getting a little old.
[Mascara said Hill had a lengthy arrest record that included charges for drugs, thefts and other crimes, and was on probation for cocaine possession at the time of Tuesday’s standoff.]
$4 for murder?
I suspect there's a LOT more to this story than the BBC slant to make it seem outrageous probably using both distortions and omissions.
Cha Ching. Somebody hit the lotto.
wrongful death...hmmm....it does sound low, even if he never held a job in his life.
I suppose if it’s 99.999996% his fault, and 0.000004% the officer’s fault, and his life is worth #1M, then the expected value is $4....I don’t know if that’s their reasoning.
Your home is not your home.
The police are not your friends.
i hope they report it to the IRS as unearned income...
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