The family of Christian Glass, who called 911 after his car got stuck and was later shot and killed by police, will receive a $19m payout – the largest payout for police misconduct in the history of Colorado.
Mr Glass was shot and killed in Silver Plume, west of Denver in the central parts of the state, in the summer of last year.
Four local governments in the state will each pay parts of the settlement to reach the record amount. In addition to the funds, the family will also receive assurances that the state and its police agencies are enacting measures to ensure a similar incident doesn’t occur again, according to 9News.
Mr Glass called 911 on 10 June last year after his car got stuck on a road in the small town, a former silver mining camp. Seven officers from five agencies responded. Mr Glass was shot and killed an hour and ten minutes after he had called for a mental health check.
He told the officers on several occasions that he was scared to open the door of the car or to roll down his window, but the police still attempted to get Mr Glass to get out of the vehicle.
Clear Creek County Deputy Andrew Buen, who has since left the job, broke the passenger-side window, Tased Mr Glass, and shot him with bean bags, which were non-lethal.
Officers have said that Mr Glass then reached out with a small knife, prompting Officer Buen to shoot him five times, killing Mr Glass.
His parents, Simon and Sally Glass, said in a statement via their lawyers that they hope that the settlement will work as a message that injustice will not be accepted and that those responsible for their son’s death will be held accountable, including the officers who didn’t act to protect Mr Glass.
The family has said previously that they wanted further indictments for those offices.
University of California, Los Angeles law professor Dr Joanna Schwartz told 9News that “$19m is a lot of money”.
“I think this agency will be thinking carefully about how it operates in the future, and other departments in the region and across the country are also going to take notice of this suit. But I think it’s the noneconomic changes that will most directly impact the department in the immediate future,” she added.
Clear Creek County, Officer Buen’s former department, has the largest payout – $10m. As part of the settlement with the county, Mr Glass’s parents will get to speak to new patrol recruits joining the Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office. The county is also set to create a crisis response team before 1 January 2025.
The co-responder programme across the county will couple mental health workers with paramedics to respond to calls along with police to make sure that what took place in the case of Mr Glass doesn’t occur again.
Dr Schwartz told 9News that in many instances, police agencies aren’t interested or willing to agree to settlements like this one.
“I really haven’t heard of another settlement that involves the parents actually themselves speaking to officers, which is truly novel in my experience,” she told the local station.
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