Kevin Peterson settlement: $1.25 million

The Clark County sheriff's office has finally wised up and is paying the family of Kevin Peterson, the Vancouver drug dealer whom they shot and killed in 2020, to settle the resulting wrongful death lawsuit. The price tag is reportedly $1.25 million.

Despite the payout, the sheriff will never admit that the trio of deputies who ended Peterson's life did anything wrong. He can say whatever he wants. Actions, and checks, speak louder than words.

I'm glad the federal judge in Seattle stood up to the cops and essentially made them pay. As bad as dealing drugs is, there shouldn't be a death penalty for it. Peterson died over a baggie of Xanax pills.

And as discussed on this blog in some detail, security video establishes pretty clearly that at the time they killed him, Peterson was running away from them. They shot him from behind.

It was quite a trio of deputies. Troy Brynelson, who's covered the story quite well for OPB, sizes them up this way:

Some of the deputies involved have been in the news since the shooting. Jeremy Brown was shot and killed in 2021 while investigating a string of weapons thefts.

State records indicate Anderson left the Clark County Sheriff’s Office near the end of 2021.

Feller in 2022 mistakenly shot and killed an off-duty Vancouver Police Department officer. He still works at Clark County Sheriff‘s Office but is no longer on patrol. An agency official said he now helps with the agency’s body-worn camera program.

And then there was this:

The case led to the resignation of a local judge. Months after the shooting, Clark County Judge Darvin Zimmerman was caught on a hot mic calling Peterson “the Black guy they were trying to make an angel out of.”

 The settlement ends the saga, I guess. A sad, sad story.