A federal judge on Tuesday approved a $4.1 million settlement between Kansas City, Missouri, police and the family of Cameron Lamb, shot and killed in his own driveway by a white police officer in 2019. The agreement ends a more than six-year saga that fractured relations between the city’s police and Black community.
The settlement stipulates no admission of guilt by either the police department or former officer Eric DeValkenaere, who in 2021 became the first Kansas City officer ever convicted of killing a Black man when a jury found him guilty of second-degree involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action in Lamb’s death.
DeValkenaere and his partner were responding to an alleged physical confrontation between Lamb, 26, and his girlfriend.
The officers were waiting for him at his home, guns drawn, though they had not secured a warrant. Lamb was backing into his garage when the cops, dressed in plainclothes, pounced. Within nine seconds, he would be shot dead.
DeValkenaere alleged the victim had pointed a handgun at his partner, but evidence introduced at his trial revealed that he had planted the weapon and the presiding judge said the officers needlessly escalated the situation.
DeValkenaere served only one year of a six-year prison sentence before outgoing Gov. Mike Parson commuted his sentence last December, prompting considerable outrage in Kansas City’s Black community. The 45-year-old ex-cop is prohibited from ever serving as a law enforcement officer in Missouri again.
The federal civil suit filed by Lamb’s mother, Laurie Bey, and other members of her family claims DeValkenaere used excessive force and alleges a violation of the Fourth Amendment, which protects citizens from unreasonable searches or seizures. The family sought more than $10 million in compensatory damages.
Nearly half of the $4.1 million agreed to on Tuesday will go to attorneys for the family, the Kansas City Star reports. Each plaintiff will receive nearly $474,500 after fees, and Lamb’s father, Bobby Lamb, who was not a party to the lawsuit, will receive $50,000. A trust has been established for Lamb’s three children.
Kansas City police will be liable for the full amount; DeValkenaere has to pay nothing, according to TV station Fox 4.
“The Parties in this lawsuit, without any admission of liability or fault in any way by any party, and in recognition of the cost and unpredictability of litigation, desire to compromise and settle all claims for injuries and/or damages related to the allegations in the lawsuit,” wrote U.S. District Court Judge Beth Phillips in her order approving the settlement.
Reaction in Kansas City’s Black community was mixed.
“On one hand, I am happy for the family of Cameron Lamb, the 26-year-old Black man fatally shot by ex-Kansas City police detective Eric DeValkenaere,” wrote Toriano Porter, a member of the Kansas City Star’s editorial board in a posting on X. “By contrast, I am equally disappointed that he and KCPD admitted no fault in this case.”
Added one citizen, “KCPD agrees to pay millions to family of Cameron Lamb, Black man killed by white detective. This is the least amount of justice these family members deserve! They deserve a conviction, but glad that this is coming to the Lamb family!”
The settlement ends a six-year saga that began with Lamb’s death in December 2019.
civil case that fractured relations between Kansas City police and the Black community,