Man Accidentally Shot by L.A. Police Gets $50,000 Settlement

The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to pay $50,000 to a San Fernando Valley man who was accidentally shot by police after he was found in a closet following a burglary in his apartment building.

The council unanimously and without discussion approved the out-of-court settlement for Timothy Charles Benjamin, who lost feeling and use of one of his hands as a result of the March 4, 1984, incident. Benjamin was unarmed when police shot him.

According to a report by the city attorney’s office, police responded to a burglary in the building at 18041 Devonshire St. in Granada Hills.

Police, in a house-to-house search, were let into Benjamin’s apartment by the apartment manager. Inside, Officer Craig Ledsworth found Benjamin, who was 16 at the time, and his friend in a closet.

The officer pulled the friend out of the closet “and then observed Mr. Benjamin in the same closet with his trousers unzipped and unbuttoned,” the report says.

Benjamin reached for his waistband area to stop his pants from falling, and the officer saw Benjamin’s “quick movement to his waist area and believed that Mr. Benjamin was arming himself,” the report says.

Ledsworth grabbed Benjamin, according to the report, and “the weapon accidentally discharged,” wounding Benjamin in the right forearm.

Benjamin’s attorney, Hartley Alley, denied that Benjamin had commited a crime. Benjamin said he hid in the closet because he was truant from school, according to a Los Angeles County district attorney’s investigation. Charges filed against Benjamin were dismissed, Alley said.

A Police Department investigation concluded that the shooting was a “tactical error” on the part of the officer, who was ordered to undergo training in tactics, said Cmdr. William Booth, a Police Department spokesman.

An investigation found that Benjamin was wearing two pairs of pants when he was shot, Booth said, adding that burglars do this to make identification difficult if they are apprehended.

Benjamin, who is unemployed and living in Northridge, suffered permanent nerve damage, his attorney said.

So far, Benjamin’s medical bills have totaled $12,544, but he will need further surgery.

“In view of the fact that this was an accidental shooting of a minor which caused a very serious permanent orthopedic injury, a potential jury verdict could substantially exceed the proposed settlement amount,” the city attorney’s office said in recommending settlement of the lawsuit.