The announcement of a partial settlement in the federal lawsuit brought by the family of Anton Black came nearly four years after Mr. Black, a 19-year-old former high school athlete with a stellar modeling career, died after being restrained by three police officers. officers, who held him face down for about six minutes, pinning his shoulder, legs and arms, according to the lawsuit. As part of the settlement, the cities also agreed to make changes to how their police departments train officers to prevent similar deaths. Mr. Black’s death has been compared to the May 2020 killing of George Floyd, who was pinned to the ground under the knee of Derek Chauvin, a white former Minneapolis police officer, for more than nine minutes. After local prosecutors did not file charges in the death, Mr. Black’s family filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Baltimore in December 2020, alleging that the officers — all white — from police departments in the cities of Centerville, Greensboro and the Ridgely had used excessive force on September 15, 2018. The lawsuit also claimed that the officers tried to cover up an unjustified killing by claiming that Mr. Black was under the influence of marijuana with another drug and had displayed “superhuman” strength. An autopsy report released four months later by the state’s medical examiner, David Fowler, blamed congenital heart defects for Mr. Black’s death and ruled the death an accident, saying there was no evidence the officers’ actions played a role. The lawsuit by Mr. Black’s family against the coroner’s office and Mr. Fowler – also defendants in their lawsuit – continues. Jennell Black, Mr Black’s mother, said in a statement that “there are no words to describe the immense hurt I will always feel when I look back on that tragic day, when I think of my son.” “No family should have to go through what we went through,” he added. “I hope that the reforms to Police Departments will save lives and prevent any family from feeling the pain that we feel every day.” In addition to the three cities, the partial settlement of the lawsuit resolved the family’s claims against several people in the cities, including Thomas Webster IV, a former Greensboro police officer. Michael Petyo, the former chief of the Greensboro Police Department. Gary Manos, the former chief of the Ridgely Police Department. and Dennis Lannon, a former Centerville police officer. The men could not be reached or did not immediately return calls seeking comment Monday night. Attorneys representing the three cities — Patrick W. Thomas, Sharon M. VanEmburgh and Lyndsey Ryan — did not immediately return emails or calls seeking comment Monday. The attorney general’s office, which is representing the coroner’s officer, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Monday. In the summer of 2018, Mr. Black developed mental health issues and began behaving erratically, according to the lawsuit. He was eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder. On Sept. 15, 2018, a woman called 911 after seeing Mr. Black living with a 12-year-old boy, the lawsuit states. Arriving officers used a Taser on Mr. Black and pinned him down near his mother’s Greensboro home, the lawsuit states. While being held down, Mr. Black told his mother, “I love you,” and yelled, “Please,” according to the lawsuit, which cites body camera footage from officers. Moments later, after his mother noticed that Mr. Black had “blacked out,” emergency medical personnel tried to revive him, but he died after being taken to a hospital, the lawsuit says. Judge Kathryn Blake of the US District Court in Maryland said in a ruling earlier this year that the video evidence of Mr. Black’s encounter with the police “is not so persuasive as to “clearly contradict” and outweigh the claims of plaintiff” of excessive force. which brought about a setback in the case of Police Departments. Richard Potter, a member of the Coalition for Justice for Anton Black, a group that has called for police accountability for Mr. Black’s death, noted in a statement that police reforms brought about by the settlement would help “prevent this kind of tragedy from happening to our community again.” Reforms called for under the settlement include more resources for police officers who deal with mental health emergencies, de-escalation training, courses on implicit bias and transparency with hiring. Deborah Jeon, the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, which represented the coalition, said in a statement that “today marks a step forward on the path toward accountability for the police killing of Anton Black.” . In addition to these reforms, a Maryland law bearing Mr. Black’s name already requires disclosure of information about investigations of police misconduct. La Toya Holley, Mr. Black’s sister, said in a statement Monday that the settlement gave her hope that another tragedy could be prevented. “No one deserves to be killed like this,” Ms Holley said. “Anton Black didn’t deserve this. He will never be forgotten.”
