His Mother Called 911 for Help Getting Him to a Hospital. An Officer Fired Eleven Shots at the Unarmed 13-Year-Old, and Salt Lake City Paid $3 Million.
After trial: Settled and paid; final. Utah's Governmental Immunity Act caps recovery against public entities under Utah Code 63G-7-604, but this was a federal claim under 42 U.S.C. 1983, and Section 1983 claims fall outside that cap, so the state limit never applied to the figure. The city confirmed $3,000,000 as the largest settlement of its kind it had ever agreed to.
Won by Cutt Kendell & Olson.
A Salt Lake City mother called 911 asking for help getting her autistic 13-year-old son to a hospital during a separation-anxiety crisis. An officer chased the unarmed boy over a fence and fired eleven shots from 15 to 20 feet away. Six hit him. The city paid $3 million, the largest such settlement in its history.
What happened
On September 4, 2020 a mother in Salt Lake City called 911. Her 13-year-old son, who has autism, was in a separation-anxiety crisis, and she wanted help getting him to a hospital. That is what the call was for.
Police were dispatched to a report of a juvenile with a violent psychological issue. The boy ran out the back of the house and climbed a fence. An officer went after him and, from somewhere between fifteen and twenty feet away, fired eleven shots at him. Six of them hit.
He was unarmed. No weapon was ever found.
He lived. The bullets damaged his intestines, colon, bladder, stomach, shoulder and ankles. His left arm was paralyzed, and his doctors were not able to say whether it would recover. He is permanently disfigured, still has bullets in his body, and carries the psychological injury of it.
The family sued Salt Lake City and its police department in federal court on November 23, 2020 under 42 U.S.C. 1983. The complaint was not simply that the shooting was excessive. It alleged the officers had less-lethal options and did not use them, did not seek guidance from a supervisor, escalated the encounter with aggressive language at a child in a mental-health crisis, and turned off their body cameras during and after the shooting.
On September 20, 2022 the city settled for $3,000,000. A city spokesperson confirmed it was the largest amount Salt Lake City had ever agreed to pay in a case of this kind.
The family was represented by Nathan S. Morris of Cutt, Kendell and Olson. The boy's mother, Golda Barton, spoke publicly about the case throughout. He is not named here because he was a child at the time.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Deseret News, Nov. 24, 2020: the family files suit in federal court over the shooting of the 13-year-old; the September 4, 2020 call for help during a mental-health crisis, the eleven shots fired from 15 to 20 feet, the six wounds and the injuries to intestines, colon, bladder, shoulder, stomach and ankles, the paralyzed left arm, that no weapon was found, and the allegations of failing to use less-lethal force and turning off body cameras; names Nathan Morris as the family's attorney
- 2.KSL, Sept. 2022: the family reaches the $3 million settlement with Salt Lake police after the shooting of the 13-year-old boy with autism
- 3.Salt Lake Tribune, Sept. 20, 2022: Salt Lake City reaches the $3 million settlement, and the city's confirmation that it is the largest amount it has agreed to pay in a case of this kind
- 4.KJZZ: the family settles the federal lawsuit over the Salt Lake City police shooting of the autistic 13-year-old
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