Family of Autistic Arabic Man Fatally Shot by LAPD awarded $1.7m - Police acted 'reckless, oppressive, malicious'

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The family of an autistic Pakistani American man fatally shot by an LA Police Department (LAPD) 3 years ago, was awarded $1.7 million by a federal jury on January 26. Mohammad Usman Chaudhry, 21, was shot four times by Joseph Cruz on March 2008. He was shot after Chaudhry was discovered lying on the ground of an apartment complex in Hollywood. Three of the bullets hit Chaudhry, in the chest. Since the killing, Cruz has insisted that Chaudhry tried to attack him with a knife and that he fired his gun in self-defense. On January 24, however, after four days of testimony, the jury rejected Cruz’s account when it returned a unanimous verdict finding that the ex-officer had used excessive force and acted in “a reckless, oppressive or malicious manner” when he shot Chaudhry. Lawyers for the victim’s family presented evidence aimed at putting doubt in the minds of the jurors over Cruz’s account. Testing on the knife that Cruz said Chaudhry had used found that Chaudhry’s DNA was not on the knife. Also, after Cruz claimed he had never met Chaudhry before the shooting, a man testified that he had been present on multiple occasions when Cruz confronted Chaudhry and called him by name. Council on American-Islamic Relations Staff Attorney, Ameena Qazi, the family’s Attorney, Olu Orange, and the Disability Rights Legal Center, filed a lawsuit in 2009 on behalf of the family of the victim. In a statement to The Muslim News Qazi said: “This is a victory for the Chaudhry family who lost an innocent young son to police brutality and whose rights were callously discarded…But the road to full justice on this case has just begun.” Attorneys representing Cruz and the City of LA had tried to limit the size of the award by arguing that Chaudhry had had a frayed relationship with his parents that lessened their suffering. Lawyers for the family countered that the parents cared deeply for their son, despite the strain on the relationship caused by his autism. Orange welcomed the verdict, “We’re very pleased. I think the jury saw the truth in this case…was about restoring the honor of this family’s son.” Orange called on the City, and specifically Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, to forgo an appeal. His attorney said, “in light of the findings of the jury on the facts of this case, I hope Mayor Villaraigosa would apologise to the Chaudhry family on behalf of the city, accept the verdict and not put the family through further trauma over the loss of their son,” he said. “If the city doesn’t, they’ll just be spending more taxpayer money to defend a dishonest cop.” The City Attorney’s office, declined to comment on the verdict or whether the city would appeal. Peter J Ferguson, who represented Cruz, could not be reached immediately for comment. The award punctuates the awkward role the city played in the case. After the shooting, the LAPD fired Cruz for dishonesty in an unrelated case. At the time, lawyers for the city argued that Cruz had destroyed his credibility. However, the LAPD and city attorney’s office tried to persuade the jury that Cruz was, in fact, credible and that his account of the shooting should be believed.