PHOENIX — The City of Phoenix will pay $650,000 in connection with a lawsuit filed by the surviving family of a man who died in 2019 following a struggle with multiple police officers.
In a 8-1 vote, the Phoenix City Council decided Wednesday to pay out a settlement for litigation filed by the mother of Casey Wells, who died a couple of days after officers attempted to detain him in a north Phoenix neighborhood.
Officers were dispatched on Feb. 4, 2019 to reports of a naked man yelling incoherently while standing in the roadway.
Police reports state that Wells was uncooperative with officers, resulting in them trying to physically detain him. Wells was reportedly shocked with a Taser multiple times by officers and body-worn camera footage shows a group of officers holding him down to the ground.
Wells lost consciousness and died two days later. At the time, the medical examiner ruled his death was the result of meth, psychosis, heart disease and “physical restraint… and possible extrinsic chest compression.”
The lawsuit filed by Wells' mother claims he was essentially "brain dead" when he was being treated at the hospital. The lawsuit further argued that the 40-year-old man posed no threat to himself nor anyone and accused officers of escalating the situation with Wells.
In 2020, the police department said its officers had acted within the agency's policies.
The settlement paid in the Wells case is the third approved by the Phoenix City Council in recent months for incidents involving the police department.
Last week, the council approved paying $5 million after a 19-year-old was mistakenly shot with a rubber bullet during a police investigation.
The council approved another $5 million last month to settle litigation filed by the family of a 34-year-old man shot by police in 2022.
*Editor's Note: The above video is from an earlier broadcast*
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