County in California to Pay $4.5 Million for Death of Man Stunned by Taser

San Mateo County, California, has agreed to pay $4.5 million to the family of a Black man who died in 2018 after a sheriff’s deputy repeatedly used a Taser on him during a struggle that began when law enforcement officers saw the man jaywalking on a busy street, the county confirmed Tuesday.

The man, Chinedu Valentine Okobi, 36, died on Oct. 3, 2018, after the struggle that day with deputies from the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department, who had seen him walking in and out of traffic in Millbrae, about 15 miles south of downtown San Francisco, officials said at the time. Video made public in 2019 showed one of the deputies using his Taser several times against Okobi, before he was restrained and became unresponsive. Officials said Okobi died of cardiac arrest.

In 2019, the family of Okobi, a father and college graduate, filed two federal lawsuits, one on behalf of his mother, and one on behalf of his daughter, alleging that the county and the law enforcement officers involved in the episode had violated Okobi’s civil rights and wrongfully caused his death, according to documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Read the source article at seattletimes.com