Settlement in failure to train case
Fred Gittes, attorney and NPAP member in Columbus Ohio reached a settlement with the Franklin County Sheriffs Department regarding the 2005 shooting death of Nasir Abdi, a young Ohio resident from Somalia.
Nasir Abdi was shot when four Sheriff’s deputies went to pick him up on a probate court detention order to take him to a hospital after the family had called for help because he had stopped taking his medication for paranoid
schizophrenia. The deputies reported Nasir was shot when he attempted to stab one of the deputies. They admitted, however, that until one of them ran toward Nasir, maced him and tried to grab him, Nasir did not strike at them or move toward them. All four deputies were at a safe distance behind protective cover with guns drawn screaming at him until the deputy ran toward Nasir. No one else was anywhere in the vicinity except Nasir and the deputies. The plaintiff’s expert testified that this was a case study in how NOT to approach someone suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and that the deputies should have been trained not to rush and to call for special assistance if the deputies were not trained themselves.
Settlement includes continuing jurisdiction of the court to enforce new initial training requirements, continuing training requirements, implementation of a Crisis Intervention Team, creation of a data base recording all background and interactions related to detentions/arrests of mentally ill individuals involving the warrant squad or CIT, and payment of $500,000 to the family.
To read the settlement agreement click here
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