Four years ago, a Los Angeles police officer fatally shot a 26-year-old African American man with a history of brain injury in his Pacoima driveway.  Christian Eaddy had suffered the injury as a child and it had affected his mental capacity thereafter.  The court recently approved the family's settlement.The department was called to the scene by the man’s family because Eaddy was exhibiting suicidal behavior on the afternoon of May 16, 2013.  Specifically, he was stabbing himself with syringes and was carrying two kitchen knives while four other family members were outside on the driveway watching him.  When officers arrived, they saw the man with the knives walking in circles, scraping the blades together menacingly.  A witness stated Eaddy at one point  told the officers, “I’m not going to hurt nobody.”  He then complied with officers’ demands and dropped the knives into a shopping cart in the driveway, according to the family’s attorney, John Taylor, in doing so, turning his back to the officers toward the cart when the fatal shot was fired.  However, The department has consistently insisted that Eaddy was still holding the knives as the shot was delivered.

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“Litigation it seems is the only way to hold officers and the department accountable. There is very little accountability from [the] district attorney’s office and Police Department,” said John Taylor, the family’s attorney, of the court system.  He not only questioned the officer’s swift jump from stunning Eaddy to delivering a fatal gun shot, but wondered why they did not wait for several backup units that were en route to the scene.  If they hadn’t acted so spontaneously, perhaps the man’s life would have been saved.

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L.A. pays $2-million settlement in police killing of man with brain injuryL.A. City Council Agrees to $2,000,000 Settlement With Family of Man LAPD Shot and Killed in His Driveway