Jury awards $5.5-million verdict in LAPD stun gun death
A jury has awarded $5.5 million to the family of a man who died after Los Angeles police repeatedly shot him with a stun gun.
Jurors found that officers used excessive and unreasonable force while trying to restrain Michael Frederick Mears on Christmas Day 2014, KPCC reported.
Dale Galipo, an attorney for Mears’ parents, said four LAPD officers and a sergeant responded to the incident and used batons, fists and pepper spray to try to restrain Mears. Galipo said an officer used a stun gun on Mears six times in three minutes.
A coroner’s report said Mears died as a result of an enlarged heart and other conditions, including cocaine intoxication and police restraint.
A spokesman for the city attorney’s office said officials are “reviewing our options.”
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