MOM PAID $1M AFTER VIDEO SHOWED COP SHOOT HER SON 13 TIMES IN THE BACK, STOMP HIS HEAD
June 8, 2019 in News by RBN Staff
Source: thefreethoughtproject.com
By Matt Agorist
Los Angeles, CA — Connor Zion, 21, was in the midst of a psychological breakdown when he became violent and was subsequently killed. However, the manner in which he was killed has led to a federal court ruling that allowed his family to sue the police officer who killed him for using excessive deadly force. This week, the taxpayers shelled out $1.1 million to pay for the officer’s actions.
According to the LA Times, Zion’s family will receive $360,000 in damages. An additional $740,000 was tacked on for the “tremendous amount of litigation” after the lawsuit slogged through the legal system for four years, said Dan Stormer, the attorney for Zion’s mother.
“When police confront a suspect who poses an immediate threat, they may use deadly force against him,” Judge Alex Kozinski wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2017. “But they must stop using deadly force when the suspect no longer poses a threat.”
Higgins did not stop using force and his actions played out like a scene from Grand Theft Auto.
“The police are not trained to stomp victims into unconsciousness, especially after they’ve been shot 13 times,” says Brian Olney, an attorney for the plaintiff’s family, calling the incident “a heinous, vicious, brutal act.”
When a suspect falls to the ground after he’s been shot in the back as he fled, that suspect is, by most definitions, subdued and no longer a threat. However, despite collapsing to the ground after being shot in the back, Orange County sheriff’s deputy Michael Higgins felt it necessary to stand over Zion as he bled out on the ground and fire nine more shots into him at point-blank range. For good measure, Higgins then backed up, took a running start, and began stomping Zion’s face into the concrete.
