Wayne Jones family, Martinsburg PD reach $3.5 million settlement

MARTINSBURG (AP) — A West Virginia city has agreed to settle an excessive force lawsuit filed by the family of a homeless Black man who was shot 22 times by police, an attorney said.

Christopher E. Brown, the attorney for the family of Wayne Arnold Jones, told The Washington Post that the lawsuit was settled for $3.5 million.

“I promised my mother before she died that we would continue to fight for justice,” Jones' brother, Bruce Jones, told the newspaper. “The settlement makes me feel a little bit better, but until I can have a chance to have these cops prosecuted, I am still going to be pushing for justice.”

The Martinsburg Police Department said in a statement that the settlement was not an admission of guilt.

Police had stopped Wayne Jones as he was walking on a Martinsburg street. Jones was shot after police said the 50-year-old Stephens City, Virginia, resident shrugged off two jolts from a stun gun, fought with officers and stabbed one of them. The officers are white.

Read more: https://www.journal-news.net/journal-news/wayne-jones-family-mpd-reach-3-5-million-settlement/article_caeeb0a2-eae1-5782-a1ce-b3472b455262.html
(Martinsburg Journal)