Facts

On March 6, 2017, Shellie Cooke, a librarian for the City of Los Angeles with no criminal history, was shot by a Los Angeles Police Department officer in front of her residence, in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles. Cooke was significantly intoxicated and holding a rifle, which the police allege was pointed at them, at the time of the shooting. The date of the incident was Cooke's 45th birthday and she was distressed and had been drinking. Cooke's mother had called 911 to get help for her daughter because she was concerned that she might be suicidal and had informed the dispatcher that her daughter had a firearm in her bedroom.

Eventually, numerous police officers, including the SWAT Team, responded to Cooke's residence and set up a perimeter around the area. When the police officers arrived to Cooke's residence, she did not have any interest in speaking to them. After a standoff lasting almost two hours, ooke walked out her front door carrying with her rifle in her hands thinking that if she gave the officers the gun, they would leave her alone and they would leave. As Cooke stepped out to the sidewalk from her front gate, four LAPD officers all began to fire their weapons at Cooke. The officers fired two assault rifles at Cooke, while one officer fired a hand gun and another fired from a less-than-lethal shotgun, all at approximately the same time. The officers did not give a verbal warning that deadly force would be used prior to firing. Cooke was struck once in her pelvic region causing her significant and permanent injuries, including several surgeries to repair damage to her internal organs.

There were several police body cameras that captured portions of the incident, however, none of the video footage captured the actual shooting or the moments immediately before the shooting.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS: Plaintiffs alleged that the Officers involved in Cooke's shooting used excessive and unreasonable force against her resulting in a battery and that they were negligent in handling the situation, including pre-shooting negligent tactics, actions and inactions.

Additionally, plaintiffs alleged that the Officers shot Cooke even though she did not pose an immediate or imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to the Officers or anyone else at the time of the shooting. Plaintiff alleges that Cooke exited her home with the gun in her hand, but that the barrel pointed down to the ground and that she immediately dropped the gun upon exiting out of her gate and began to turn around to go back into her house when multiple officers all began to fire at her at once, without first giving her warning or sufficient time to comply with commands. Further, Cooke alleges that she could not even see the officers who shot at her because of their positions of cover and that several officers were giving conflicting commands.

Although three different officers all fired at Cooke simultaneously and she was only struck once, Plaintiff maintained that regardless of who shot her, all of their use of force was excessive and that it was defendants' burden to bear to determine which of their officers was responsible for actually shooting Cooke.

All of the percipient witnesses to the use of force, except for the Plaintiff, were LAPD police officers. Further, all the police officer witnesses alleged that Cooke had had the rifle in her hand and was pointing it at police officers at the time of the shooting. This factual dispute, coupled with the plaintiff's intoxication at the time of the incident, made credibility and establishing liability challenging.

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS: Defendants contend that the use of force was reasonable because the Plaintiff exited her house holding a rifle and that she had it pointed in the direction of the officers when she was shot.

Result

Settlement of $1,650,000.

Other Information

The case settled after voir dire and opening statements.

Length

two days