Posted on: March 25, 2024, 01:47h.
Last updated on: March 25, 2024, 02:07h.
The family of a Black man shot to death by police outside an illegal online gambling den in San Bernardino, Calif., in July 2022 has received a $4 million settlement from the city, The San Bernardino Sun reports.
Rob Marquise Adams, 23, was running away from San Bernardino Police Department officers when he was shot six times, mostly in the back, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family.
The city agreed to the settlement despite an ongoing investigation into whether the officers involved, Michael Yeun and Sgt. Imran Ahmed, were justified in their actions.
“San Bernardino agreed to the settlement recognizing the costs and attorneys’ fees to take a federal civil rights case to trial, as well as the risks associated with a civil jury, given the current climate in the courts,” attorney Steven Rothans, who represented the city, said in a statement to the Sun.
Hail of Bullets
According to the official police report of the July 19 incident, Michael Yeun and Imran Ahmed, both Special Investigation Unit Officers with the San Bernardino Police Department, received reports that “a Black male armed with a gun” was in the parking lot of the gambling den.
On their arrival in an unmarked car, the two uniformed officers saw two men in the parking lot. They claimed one of the men, later identified as Adams, “pulled a gun from his waistband and began walking towards” them, according to the report.
They exited their vehicle and demanded the man drop the weapon. Instead, Adams sprinted in the opposite direction towards two parked cars, still carrying the gun, the report claimed. One of the officers, later identified by bodycam footage as Yeun, opened fire.
Video taken by security cameras in the parking lot, released by SBPD, shows Adams approaching the unmarked police car. He is holding something in his right hand that could be a gun, although the footage is inconclusive.
Adams’ family claimed in the lawsuit that the object was a cell phone, and he was unarmed. SBPD denies that, claiming he was holding a Taurus G3C 9mm which was recovered from his body.
Kaepernick Paid for Autopsy
Because the city delayed the publication of the coroner’s report, former NFL quarterback and civil rights activist Colin Kaepernick paid for an independent autopsy. This formed the basis for many of the allegations in the lawsuit.
Although not specified in the suit, media previously reported that Adams’ family was seeking $100 million.
In April 2023, KQED reported that both Yeun and Ahmed have histories of using excessive force and that in 2020, Yeun shot an unarmed minor who had fled from a vehicle he had pulled over for a traffic stop.
