Gregory Hill, 30, was fatally shot by sheriff’s deputies who arrived at his home over a noise complaint. (Image courtesy of Raw Story)
The family of a Black Florida man shot and killed by police in his own garage was awarded $4 by a jury this week as compensation for their loved one’s death.
According to The New York Times, Gregory Vaughn Hill’s family was initially granted $4 in damages; $1 for the funeral and $1 for each of Hill’s children. Their award was reduced to a mere four cents, however, after the jury determined the Lucie County Sheriff’s Office was only 1 percent to blame for the slain man’s death.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said Hill’s fiancée, Monique Davis. “There are a lot of questions I want to ask.”
Hill was fatally shot in January 2014 when sheriff’s deputies responded to a noise complaint from one of Hill’s neighbor’s about loud music coming from his garage. Hill, 30, was drunk at the time of his encounter with police, which ended with him being shot dead through the door of his garage by Deputy Christopher Newman.
Authorities claimed Hill had a gun and pointed it at them during the encounter, but that’s currently in dispute, as investigators located an unloaded gun in the slain father’s pocket after the shooting, according to The New York Times. Hill was struck three times by police; twice in the abdomen and once in the head.
Several details of the incident remain murky, but it’s clear the shooting only occurred after Hill closed his garage. That’s when Newnan opened fire, fatally wounding Hill on the other side. The entire incident unfolded in less than two minutes but police didn’t realize Hill was dead until a SWAT team arrived and uncovered his lifeless body inside the garage.
The jury placed much of the blame on Hill for his death, finding him responsible for 99 percent of the negligence in the case, according to a jury a form cited by The New York Times. John M. Phillips, the Hill family’s attorney said, he would have preferred the jury find zero negligence and award them nothing rather than the insultingly low $4 in damages.
“I think they were trying to insult the case,” Mr. Phillips said of the jury board. “Why go there with the $1? That was the hurtful part.”
