Cleveland pays $375,000 settlement: White Cop Shot Unarmed, Surrendered Black Man Lying on the Ground & Then Put Gun Into His Mouth

From [HERE] Cleveland has agreed to pay $375,000 to settle a lawsuit that claimed white Cleveland police officer, Sgt. Timothy Patton [racist suspect in photo] shot and wounded an unarmed black man who was trying to surrender while lying face down in a garage.

Court documents show that a settlement was reached Thursday in the federal lawsuit filed by 29-year-old Kipp Holloway after the May 2014 shooting.

A city spokesman couldn't be reached for comment Sunday about the settlement. The city denied the allegations in a motion after the lawsuit was filed in May 2015.

According to the lawsuit and Holloway's attorney, Terry Gilbert, Holloway had gotten a ride from two acquaintances who picked him up while he was shopping. He sat in the backseat. After a short while the men noticed that they were being followed by a white man in a red pickup truck. At that time the acquaintances told Holloway that they had robbed the main tailing them. The driver of the car crashed after a high-speed pursuit on city streets and Holloway ran to a dilapidated garage where he hid behind a motorcycle, the lawsuit said. The other two men fled away on foot.

Holloway was lying on his stomach on the garage floor when heard a police radio and an officer approaching, prompting Holloway to call out that he was black, not armed and that he had his hands up, the lawsuit said. He was lying face down down with his hands and arms extended on the ground, over his head. That's when Sgt. Timothy Patton fired a shot "without any warning and no provocation," the lawsuit said. The shot went through Holloway's right forearm and ricocheted off the floor into his chest.

Patton then "yanked" Holloway to up his knees by the collar and placed the barrel of a gun into his mouth while asking where his "boys" were, the lawsuit said. He also asked him why Holloway made Patton chase him.

"Holloway was consumed with fear," the lawsuit said. "He thought the police were going to kill him."

Holloway v. City of Cleveland by sandydocs on Scribd

The lawsuit said Patton and other officers provided no first aid despite the fact that Holloway was in obvious pain and bleeding profusely, they handcuffed him and forced him to walk to an ambulance.

As Holloway writhed in pain the police mocked him and made disparaging comments to him. An unnamed officer in eh suit told him "if it were up to me I would let you bleed out." The same cop rode in the ambulance with Holloway and threatened to "blow his brains out." The cops also wanted him to be taken to a a hospital out of the area so that his injuries would be prolonged.

Holloway underwent surgery at a hospital. He was jailed after being released and remained there for nearly 8 months until his trial on charges of breaking and entering and possession of criminal tools in September 2014. A judge dismissed both charges in the middle of Holloway's trial.

Gilbert said Sunday that Patton told authorities he shot at Holloway's right hand after it was raised in the air because he thought Holloway was holding a gun. Gilbert said the claim doesn't make sense, because Patton shot him in the left arm.

"Patton's story was so incredibly unbelievable," Gilbert said. "Ultimately, the judge saw through it."

Patton said Sunday that he's not allowed to comment and referred questions to the city of Cleveland.

Holloway has undergone two more surgeries and has not regained complete use of his left hand, Gilbert said, while dealing with post-traumatic stress.

Cleveland has paid out a number of large settlements in recent years after police shootings of unarmed black people. It paid a total of $3 million to the families of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams after they were killed in a 137-shot barrage of police gunfire in 2012. And the city paid $6 million to the family of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old black boy who was fatally shot by a white officer while playing with a pellet gun in 2014.

Cleveland reached an agreement called a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice in May 2015 after a months-long Department of Justice investigation concluded that Cleveland police officers had shown a pattern or practice of using excessive force. That agreement remains in place and has led to reform efforts that include a rewriting of the department's use of force policies.