City Pays $1 Million to Parents of Teen Shot by Pasadena Police

The city of Pasadena will pay more than $1 million to the parents of an unarmed 19-year-old man fatally shot by two police officers following a false 911 call of an armed robbery, it was announced today.

The payments settle a federal wrongful death and civil rights lawsuit brought by the parents of Kendrec McDade against the city, which agreed to pay his mother, Anya Slaughter, $850,000, and his father, Kenneth McDade, $187,500.

The settlement was announced last week on the eve of trial in Los Angeles federal court, but the specific dollar amounts were not revealed until today.

Kendrec McDade was shot eight times by Pasadena police officers Mathew Griffin and Jeffrey Newlen in March 2012. McDade was unarmed and the caller, Oscar Carrillo-Gonzalez, later admitted to lying in order to get a faster police response and was convicted of making a false report, according to court documents.

Carrillo-Gonzalez pleaded guilty in June 2013 to two misdemeanor charges and was sentenced to 180 days split between jail and a Caltrans work crew.

"The false armed robbery call by Mr. Carrillo-Gonzalez set off a series of events that ultimately led to the death of then-suspect Kendrec McDade," Pasadena city spokesman William H. Boyer said in a statement issued last year.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office conducted an investigation and concluded that "the officers acted in lawful self-defense and defense of others." An internal review by the police department concluded that the officers had acted within departmental policy in the shooting.

McDade's shooting led to an outcry from hs relatives and activists who claimed police used excessive force by opening fire on the unarmed man.

Police said the officers believed McDade had a weapon, because Carrillo- Gonzalez told a 911 dispatcher he had been robbed of his backpack by armed assailants.

Carrillo-Gonzalez later admitted that he never saw a gun and had lied to the 911 operator because he was angry and believed that officers would respond more quickly if they thought a gun was involved.

—City News Service