$12.5 Million Settlement for Unarmed Man Killed by Lakewood Police Sniper

The city of Lakewood, its police chief and two officers have dropped an appeal of a record $15.1 million jury verdict in the 2013 SWAT-team sniper-death of Leonard Thomas, an unarmed black man who was killed as he clutched his 4-year-old son following a four-hour standoff, and have agreed to pay Thomas’ family $12.5 million to settle the wrongful-death and civil-rights lawsuit.

The settlement in the racially charged case leaves in place the July 2017 unanimous verdict by a jury in U.S. District Court in Seattle finding Lakewood, Fife and members of the Pierce County Metro SWAT team committed 14 separate civil-rights violations that night, including illegal seizure and use of excessive force.

The verdict came after a three-week trial and four days of deliberations. The panel had singled out Lakewood Police Chief Mike Zaro — then an assistant chief — and Lakewood officers Sgt. Brian Markert and Mike Wiley for punitive damages totaling $6.5 million, finding their actions were particularly egregious and led to Thomas’ unnecessary death.

Metro Pierce County SWAT, responded to a 911 call as part of a multi-agency operation that included more than 20 heavily armed officers and an armored vehicle, which they drove onto Thomas’ front yard. Over the next four hours, Thomas repeatedly told police to go away and officers agreed he had committed a misdemeanor assault on his mother at best. Thomas never displayed a firearm — there were no guns in the house — and he never threatened police or his son, according to testimony at trial. SWAT breached the back door of the home just as Thomas had agreed with a hostage negotiator to let the boy go. The defense said that Thomas, who was on the front porch with the boy when the team used explosives to blow down his back door and then shot his dog, reached for the boy.

A SWAT Sniper, hidden across the street with a .308-caliber precision rifle, shot Thomas in the belly when he reached for the boy. Officers testify they had to pry the child out of his dying father’s arms as Thomas, who was bleeding to death, begged them not to hurt his boy.

The city of Lakewood has said it would indemnify the officers in this lawsuit. (The Olympian, September 7, 2018)