An Ohio jury has ordered that a white police officer must pay $4.4m in compensatory damages to the family of a Black man the officer killed after approaching him while the man was sleeping.
Officer Matthew Rhodes “climbed” into the car of Luke Stewart, 23, as he was asleep on a street in Euclid, Ohio, in March 2017, according to reports.
The officers were called to the scene after someone reported a “suspicious car”, according to ABC News 5 Cleveland.
They apparently believed the man was under the influence and tried to get him to come out of the car, but Stewart allegedly tried to drive away. Rhodes then got into the car, and the two engaged in a scuffle. Rhodes used a Taser on Stewart, hit him and finally fired four fatal shots. Stewart was unarmed.
His mother, Mary Stewart, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Rhodes in 2021. This week following deliberations the jury awarded compensatory damages, aimed at restitution for the family’s losses, though it neglected to order punitive damages, which are paid in order to punish the plaintiff. A grand jury had previously decided not to indict the officer.
Last week, Rhodes said in court that neither his dash-cam nor his flashlight were on when he approached Stewart. Experts testified that this did not live up to best practice in law enforcement.
In Ohio, police dash-cam footage is considered a public record, which transparency advocates have lauded, not least for the role it plays in holding police accountable.
The lack of dash-cam footage in the trial “deprived the public of a key piece of evidence”, Stewart’s mother’s attorney, Sarah Gelsomino, said.
In January, Rhodes was promoted to sergeant.
• The text and subheading of this article were amended on 3 and 4 November 2022. The decision not to indict the officer was made previously by a grand jury, not by the jury that made the award of compensatory damages as an earlier version had indicated.
