From [HERE] Lawyers for a psychopathic white Satsuma police officer reached an out-of-court settlement Friday with attorneys for the brother of a Black man whom the officer intentionally ran over after a high-speed chase six years ago.
The brother of Jermaine Gaillard had sued Sam Commins on behalf of the estate, accusing him of wrongful-death and a federal civil rights violation in July 2008. That case was set to begin Tuesday in U.S. District Court. But an entry in the case file indicates that attorneys filed a confidential settlement agreement at a pretrial conference on Friday.
According to court records, Gaillard was a passenger in a Dodge Charger driven by Hillary Bernard Baldwin, who led law enforcement officers on a chase that exceeded 100 mph. Police claim Baldwin sped away after a Baldwin County sheriff's deputy attempted to question him about whether he was carrying drugs.
Mobile County sheriff's deputies placed a spike strip along Bay Bridge Road off of Interstate 165 in Prichard, stopping the car.
That's when Baldwin and Gaillard bailed and took off running. A dashboard camera in Commins' squad car showed the vehicle turning right over a grassy median and then shifting left when the two men ran across the road. The squad car then struck Gaillard, running him over, killing him. The car appears to accelerate when Galliard comes into view. At any rate the white cop apparently made no effort to slow down and hit him while moving at a high speed.
The officer maintained that he struck Gailliard accidentally. An expert witness was going to testify about hearing the officer's patrol car accelerate before striking Gaillard.