Redondo Beach settles police shooting lawsuit in Death of Native American Man - $500,000
Monday, January 17, 2005 at 12:43AM
TheSpook
A California police department
has agreed to pay $500,000 to the siblings of an Indian man killed
after a high-speed chase. Nathan Lee Rossbach, 40, died Oct. 6, 2002,
near Los Angeles International Airport. His sisters filed a wrongful
death lawsuit against the city a year later, alleging officials with
the Redondo Beach Police Department acted with negligence and used
unjustified force. Police called it a tragic mistake. Rossbach was a
member of the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Red Lake, Minn. In the
settlement approved by the Redondo Beach City Council, Rossbach's
sisters, Trudy Cook and Mamie Rossbach will divide the $500,000.
Rossbach was out of prison for less than three weeks when he was shot
in a stolen 1992 Ford Bronco at the end of the chase. An officer was
attempting to subdue him with a so-called less-than-lethal beanbag
round so they could pull him from the car, investigators said. Officer
Michael Martinez passed a 12-gauge shotgun to Officer Michael
Strosnider, who fired and then realized the gun was loaded with live
ammunition. [more]
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