Cops Kill People: Anton Black’s Family Reaches $235,000 Settlement With Maryland’s Chief Medical Examiner Over 2018 Wrongful Death

Bossip
Video

Source:
Douglas
Rissing
/
Getty

It’s
nice
that
families
are
being

compensated
for
the
fatal
violence
committed
by
the
state
against
their
loved
ones
but
not
killing
them
in
the
first
damn
place
is
much
preferred.

BOSSIP
reported
on
the
death
of

19-year-old
Anton
Black
back
in
March
of
2019.
Black’s
name
was
one
of
the
many
that
were
shouted
by
protesters
during
the
2020
summer
of
reckoning.
The
teen
was
killed
in
front
of
his
mother’s
house
by
police
officers
in
Greensboro,
Maryland
after
they
were
called
with
reports
that
Black
was
“dragging
a
boy
down
the
street.”

The
boy
was
a
12-year-old
friend
of
Black’s
and
was
not
in
any
danger
of
being
harmed
according
to
Black’s
mother
per

The
Washington
Post.
However,
the
police
treated
the
incident
like
a
potential
kidnapping
and
responded
with
overly
aggressive
force.
Following
a
brief
chase,
the
terrified
teenager
locked
himself
inside
his
family’s
vehicle.
Officers
proceeded
to
smash
the
windows,
shoot
him
with
a
taser,
and
pin
him
to
the
ground
for
over
5
minutes
before
he
even
had
a
chance
to
step
out
of
the
car.

Moments
later,
Black
had
stopped
breathing
and
later
that
evening
he
died
in
the
hospital.

Now
according
to

the
Daily
Record,
this
past
Wednesday,
Maryland
officials
approved
a
$235,000
settlement
to
be
paid
to
the
family
on
behalf
of
the
Office
of
the
Chief
Medical
Examiner.
The
lawsuit
was
filed
due
to
the
way
the
medical
examiner
characterized
Black’s
passing
as
“sudden
cardiac
death”
while
naming
the
boy’s
bipolar
disorder
as
a
“significant
contributing
condition.”

The
autopsy
explicitly
stated
that
the
police
officers’
actions
had
no
bearing
whatsoever
on
Blacks’
death.

The
Daily
Record
reports
that
both
the
family
and
lawyers
for
the
ACLU
called
that
description
cap.

Black’s
death
should
have
been
ruled
a
homicide
and
that
the
medical
examiners
based
their
investigation
and
autopsy
report
on
a
police
narrative
that
included
“demonstrably
false
allegations
of
drug
abuse.”

Multiple
medical
professionals
including
a
Johns
Hopkins
University
cardiologist
and
the
chief
medical
examiner
for
Washington,
D.C
concluded
that
Black
died
of
asphyxiation
due
to
“pressure
and
positioning
[that]
prevented
Black
from
being
able
to
breathe,
depriving
him
of
the
oxygen
necessary
for
his
brain
and
heart
to
function
correctly”.

In
addition
to
the
cash,
the
settlement
also
requires
that
medical
examiners
undergo
a
new
process
by
which
they
inform
the
public
on
how
to
challenge
their
findings
and
the
protocol
for
how
the
office
handles
investigations
into
deaths
that
occur
under
police
custody.

The
Baltimore
Sun
reports
that
in
August
2022
Black’s
family
was
awarded
$5
million
in
a
federal
lawsuit.