$15-Million Suit Filed in Muslim Man’s Death
A lawyer representing Brittany Beasley--the 7-year-old daughter of a Muslim man who was killed in January during a fracas in the Athens area with sheriff’s deputies--on Tuesday filed a $15-million wrongful-death claim against Los Angeles County.
If the county decides not to pay, Brittany’s lawyer, Arden B. Silverman, will go to court and argue that the Sheriff’s Department was negligent in sending a trainee into an area that was a “hotbed of tension between residents and law enforcement officers.”
Two weeks before the shooting, a brawl broke out between Los Angeles police and 13 Muslims in the Crenshaw District.
Sheriff’s officials said the shooting death of Oliver Beasley, 27, of Los Angeles, started as a routine traffic stop.
Sheriff’s officials said Nation of Islam members began fighting with deputies in front of an apartment building used as a Muslim meeting place. When a handgun was taken from the trainee during the fracas, he drew a backup pistol and fired several rounds, fatally wounding Beasley in the head.
Assistant county counsel Robert Ambrose said the claim will be “looked at carefully,” with a decision on what action to take within 45 days.
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