Jury awards $9.8 million to family of woman shot and killed by Long Beach police
A jury has awarded $9.8 million to the family of a Long Beach woman who was shot and killed in January 2017 by two Long Beach Police officers.
Sinuon Pream, 37, was fatally shot Jan. 15, 2017, at 7th Street and Bellflower Boulevard, near the Veterans Administration hospital.
Police had been called to the area following reports of a woman threatening people with a knife inside a restaurant, authorities said at the time.
When she refused to surrender, officers tried to use a stun gun on Pream, whose family said was mentally ill, but the device did not work properly.
Two officers hired just nine months earlier — Eliser Domingo and Bradley Muhlenkamp — then opened fire on Pream, who died later at a local hospital.
Police said Pream tried to approach the officers with the knife before they opened fire, but an attorney for the woman’s family said she was moving away from the officers when she was shot.
The coroner determined that some of the shots struck the back of Pream’s body, the family’s attorneys said.
“We hope that this verdict will save lives and change the way that the officers in the Long Beach Police Department and other police departments respond to people that are suffering from mental illnesses,” family attorney Brian Dunn said in a statement.
Family members said they “remained confused and devastated, not knowing how or why it happened.”
“While this was an extremely tough week at trial, hearing the full details of what actually happened and receiving this verdict makes us feel like we have finally received justice,” the family said in the statement. “We hope Sinuon’s soul can finally rest in peace.”
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