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Zachary Hammond,
19, died last July when he was shot by Lieutenant Mark Tiller
through the open window of the car he was driving in a Hardee's
parking lot in the town of Seneca, about 120 miles northwest of
the state capital, Columbia.
"Rather than endure a lengthy litigation process, both parties
agree that an early resolution will allow a platform for healing
for the Hammond family and the City of Seneca that is outside
the spotlight of litigation,” lawyers for all parties said in a
statement.
No state criminal charges were filed against Tiller in the
shooting.
Hammond's killing came during a wave of protests across the
country in response to several high-profile police killings of
unarmed black men, sparking the Black Lives Matter movement.
His parents asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate
their son's death, arguing that excessive police force was not a
matter of race. A federal grand jury was empanelled last August,
Hammond family attorney Eric Bland said in a telephone interview
on Tuesday.The town of Seneca will pay $250,000 and the rest
will come from the South Carolina Municipal Insurance Reserve
Fund, Bland said.
"You don't pay $2,150,000 unless something is wrong," he added.
"That amount of money is consistent with all the other police
shooting cases across the country."Police said at the time that
Hammond drove his Honda Civic directly at Tiller when asked to
put his hands on the steering wheel during a stop that was part
of a drug sting.
But dashcam video released by investigators three months after
the shooting showed Tiller running to Hammond's car, yelling at
him to stop and firing at him through the open window as it
began to move away.
A private pathology report found that Hammond was shot twice,
once in the left shoulder from behind and once in the left side
of his chest.
(Reporting by Harriet McLeod; Editing by Curtis Skinner and
Peter Cooney)
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