Jury Awards 350K To Family Of Black Teen Fatally Shot In Back By Police

By Stephen Gossett in News on Apr 18, 2017 9:13PM

Photo: Scott Olson / Getty Images

The fatal police shooting of a black teen in the back was unjustified, a jury ruled on Tuesday. The family of Christian Green on Tuesday was awarded $350,000 in damages in the lawsuit brought forth by the late teen's mother, according to reports.

The trial featured the highly atypical sight of Supt. Eddie Johnson giving sworn testimony. Years before he was the city's top cop, he responded to shooting as a deputy. During the trial, he said that shooting a fleeing suspect in the back can at times be justified.

Green, 17, was shot and killed by police officer Robert Gonzalez, who was in pursuit, on the Fourth of July in 2013, in Washington Park.

According to the Tribune, Gonzalez said he fired after Green turned and pointed a gun at police while he chased Green in a vacant lot. Three other officers who were on the scene backed up his account. But the family's attorney, Victor Henderson, argued that Green was about to get away when he was shot, and they noted that he had previously tried to get rid of the gun.

Surveillance footage showed that Green had tossed his gun toward a trash can, but he ran back to pick it up after it bounced out and fell on the sidewalk, the Trib reports. But court documents also stated that Green's weapon was found some 75 feet away from his body, according to reports.

Green was shot in the left of his back and suffered fatal wounds to his lung and heart.

The Tribune reports that eyewitness testimony countered the police version of events:

"The officers' accounts of the shooting were contradicted last week by a witness, Laticia Whitehead, who said she saw Green running full speed away from the police and that he never turned before Gonzalez opened fire. After the boy jerked and fell to the ground, Whitehead said, the officer who shot him got out of the vehicle, put a foot on his motionless body and started yelling."

Before the ruling, the family's lawyer did not make a request for a specific award figure to the jury.