LOS ANGELES : $500,000 Awarded to Family of Man Slain by Deputies
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to award $500,000 to settle a civil rights claim filed by the mother of a mentally ill man who was fatally shot by sheriff’s deputies nearly three years ago.
The death of Keith Hamilton was one of four deputy-involved shootings within a one-month period in the summer of 1991 that sparked community outrage and eventually led to a sweeping reform of the Sheriff’s Department’s use-of-force policies.
Authorities said deputies shot the 33-year-old Hamilton eight times in the back and once in the shoulder as he lay face-down after they were summoned to his mother’s Ladera Heights home because he was behaving erratically.
Deputies said Hamilton was wearing a sheathed knife but later acknowledged that he had not threatened anyone with it.
The deputies involved were cleared of criminal wrongdoing but two were later fired and a third was disciplined.
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