Pasadena pays $1 million to parents of Kendrec McDade to settle lawsuits

The city of Pasadena has paid about $1 million to the parents of an unarmed teenager who was killed two years ago in a shooting by Pasadena police.

The parents of unarmed Kendrec McDade settled two separate lawsuits with the city of Pasadena last week, though details of the agreement had not been made public until Monday.

Under the agreement, the teen's mother, Anya Slaughter, received $850,000, and his father, Kenneth McDade, got $187,500, according to the Pasadena city attorney who announced the deal.

"The agreements included monetary settlements for the parents, who, in turn, agreed to dismiss their lawsuits against the City and Pasadena police officers," the statement reads.

Kendrec McDade, 19, was shot by two Pasadena police officers in March of 2012 after a 911 caller falsely reported that two men with guns had stolen a backpack from his car.

As police chased two teenagers through city streets, they say McDade turned quickly toward one of the police officers in a patrol car; they say McDade reached for his pants. Police fired several shots, some from close range. McDade was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. He didn’t have a gun on him and relatives say he was not involved in a crime that night.

The shooting caused angst among Pasadena communities about police excessive force and racial profiling. It happened not long after the Florida shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who was also unarmed.

An internal investigation by the Pasadena Police Department found the officers who shot McDade were within departmental policy. The Los Angeles County District Attorney also cleared the officers of any criminal wrongdoing. 

The city’s settlement does not say that its police department is at fault nor does it make the city liable.

The L.A. County Office of Independent Review is still examining the shooting and is supposed to issue a report on how the Pasadena Police Department handled the investigation.