Mother of unarmed Pasadena teen killed by police settles with city

The mother of Kendrec McDade, the unarmed 19-year-old who was shot and killed by Pasadena police officers in the spring of 2012, has agreed to settle her share of the wrongful-death and civil-rights lawsuit lodged against the city, according to court documents.

At a status conference Friday, the attorney for McDade’s mother told the judge that his client, Anya Slaughter, planned to drop her part of the lawsuit.

The document didn’t include details of the settlement, including a dollar amount.

When reached by phone Saturday, Slaughter said she wasn’t ready to talk about the settlement. “Give me a chance to breathe,” she said.

McDade was shot in March 2012 after a late-night police pursuit stemming from a 911 call from a man who said that McDade and another person had stolen his laptop and that both were armed.

The 911 caller, Oscar Carrillo, later admitted he had lied about seeing guns because he thought it would speed up the police response time. Carrillo did jail time last year after pleading guilty to one count of falsely reporting and one count of reporting an emergency knowing the report was false.

An internal review of the shooting determined that Pasadena Police Officers Matthew Griffin and Jeffrey Newlen, who each shot McDade four times, both acted “within departmental policy.”

According to the 14-page lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, McDade’s parents claimed that the shooting had caused pain, suffering and severe emotional injury that required extensive treatment.

The settlement announced Friday doesn’t pertain to the victim’s father, Kenneth McDade, and a jury is slated to begin hearing his case Tuesday, according to court documents.

Neither Pasadena’s city manager nor McDade’s attorney responded to emails requesting comment.