Pierce County Pays $3.5M For Police Shooting Lawsuit: Reports

TACOMA, WA — Pierce County has agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a man shot and killed by a Pierce County deputy, according to several reports.

The Tacoma News Tribune first broke the story Saturday, reporting that the county had reached an agreement with the family of Brent Heath last month.

In 2017, a Pierce County Sheriff's Department deputy attempted to pull Heath over for driving a vehicle with expired tags, according to a report from the Associated Press, but instead Heath fled, leading deputies on a chase until his vehicle was disabled in Port Orchard.

According to the lawsuit, that's when Heath tried to step out of the vehicle, but was stopped when a deputy opened fire, shooting him in the head.

“The shooting occurred at the end of a police chase when Mr. Heath was surrounded and his car was disabled with three flat tires, and blocked from the road by a guardrail,” attorneys for the Heath family said in a release announcing the settlement.

Heath survived for about a year, passing away in 2018, the Associated Press reports.

Pierce County maintains that the shooting was justified, saying that Heath had broken several laws and endangered his community by leading police on a high-speed chase.

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