Wrongful Death with Mental Health

Our client was a 20 year old with mental health issues who was having a mental health crisis. Our client’s mother called for an ambulance to assist and transport her son to the hospital. Instead of paramedics, law enforcement officers arrived who shot our client multiple times within minutes of arriving on scene. Attorney Shawn Barnett was retained to represent the family and argued that the use of deadly force by the officer was wholly unjustified. While this settlement will not bring back the lost child, we were able to show that the officers’ response to the situation was woefully inadequate and subsequent additional training on responding to mental health situations was given to law enforcement officers with that department.