Family Of Mentally Disabled Man Shot And Killed By LAPD To Receive $2.2 Million

A jury in a civil case has awarded $2.2 million to the family of Christian Eaddy, a 26-year-old man who was shot in his own home by LAPD officers in 2013.

The incident happened at about 2:25 p.m., May 16, 2013 on the 13000 block of Corcoran Street in Pacoima, according to the City News Service. Family members of Christian Eaddy had called the police, saying that the man was stabbing himself with knives and syringes, and that he was threatening suicide.

Eaddy suffered a brain injury as a child and "was known to become aggressive with police," according to the L.A. Times. A senior minister at the church Eaddy attended told The Daily News that Eaddy "had the mental capacity of a 10-year-old."

LAPD officers Christopher Carr and Fernando Avila arrived first at the scene. According to attorneys for the Eaddy family, Eaddy was shot within 40 seconds of the officers' arrival.

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"If I was to call this case something, I would call it death in 40 seconds," said attorney Robert Brown.

According to the LAPD, Christian Eaddy had started coming towards an officer with knives in his hands when he was shot. Avila had first shot a taser gun at Eaddy, and, almost immediately after, Carr fired a single fatal shot from 9 feet away, according to a release by the LAPD in 2014. Eaddy later died at a hospital.

Family members contend that Eaddy was actually putting the knives in a shopping cart, and that he was about to lower himself to the floor, when he was shot. Attorneys said that the nature of the bullet wound suggested that Eaddy was facing the shopping cart. A witness also claimed that he'd told the officers, "I'm not going to hurt nobody."

Eaddy was an African American, and Carr was white, but neither party had claimed during the trial that race was a factor.

After the incident, Police Chief Charlie Beck claimed that the officers had acted within policy, and District Attorney Jackie Lacey declined to prosecute.