Seattle has agreed to pay $10 million to 50 people injured by police during the city’s violent 2020 riots over the death of George Floyd, the city announced Wednesday.
The city admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement, citing instead the strain litigation had placed on it, according to a press release from the city. During riots following the death of George Floyd, individuals committed arson and looted businesses, leading the police to respond with non-lethal force.
“This settlement resolves the majority of the remaining claims arising out of the 2020 demonstration period and is a big step toward allowing the City to focus on the important work of today, while moving forward from events four years ago,” Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison said.
The plaintiffs and the city agreed to a settlement after a series of closed-door meetings, The Seattle Times reported.
The riots in Seattle following Floyd’s death resulted in a significant amount of property damage, bodily injury and death. (RELATED: 24 People Have Died Since Violence Erupted Following George Floyd’s Death)
Rioters established the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, or CHAZ, by occupying six city blocks after police had retreated from the areas surrounding the department’s eighth precinct building.
While protesters occupied the section of the city, preventing law enforcement from entering, multiple people were shot and two were killed.
The city agreed to pay out $3.6 million to businesses that sustained property damage resulting from the CHAZ occupation, significantly less than what protesters received.
In one incident, rioters pulled AR-15s from an abandoned police cruiser and were disarmed by a private security guard working with a local news outlet.
During the riots in Seattle following Floyd’s death, reports surfaced of protesters assaulting people, committing arson, looting businesses and damaging property, according to The Seattle Times.
(REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic)
The city argued that injured protesters “assumed the risk” of being injured by attending the violent protests; however, a judge rejected that argument, according to The Seattle Times. Karen Koehler, the attorney representing the protesters, called police “punks” who “brutalized peaceful protestors.”
The $10 million settlement will be distributed evenly between the 50 plaintiffs, amounting to $200,000 each, the Seattle Times reported.
The case between the city and the protestors had been ongoing for three years.
“The case has been a significant drain on the time and resources of the City and would have continued to be so through an estimated three-month trial that was scheduled to begin in May,” Davison said on Wednesday.
Millions of pages of records, more than 10,000 records, hundreds of interviews and hundreds of interactions between police and the plaintiffs were reviewed during the case, according to a city press release.
The Seattle City Attorney’s Office had no additional comments when reached by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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