LAKEWOOD, Wash. (AP) - The City of Lakewood has agreed to pay $500,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of an unarmed Native American man who police fatally shot after pointing a cellphone at them.
The Seattle Times reports the settlement in the death of 37-year-old Daniel Covarrubias was finalized Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma.
Covarrubias was reportedly acting erratically April 21, 2015, and climbed atop a stack of lumber at the Pinnacle Lumber Yard in Lakewood.
Employees called to report a trespasser and Lakewood officers responded, shooting Covarrubias when officers said he held his cellphone in front of him and they thought it was a gun.
According the lawsuit filed by Covarrubias’s mother, Marilyn, Covarrubias had just left a hospital where he had gone due to hallucinations.
The City of Lakewood has been sued repeatedly over alleged civil-rights violations with racial overtones by police.
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Information from: The Seattle Times, http://www.seattletimes.com
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