City Of Arlington Settles With Family Of Teen Killed By Officer
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ARLINGTON (CBSDFW.COM) - The City of Arlington will pay the family of Christian Taylor $850,000 after Officer Brad Miller shot and killed the 19-year-old in August 2015.
Surveillance video showed the unarmed teen jumping on cars and breaking windows at a car dealership.
Six officers were on the scene, including Miller, who was in training, and his training officer, Cpl. Dale Wiggens. Police Chief Will Johnson said that one officer confronted Taylor through a glass door, as Miller entered the showroom through the hole broken in the wall without telling Wiggens where he was going.
"Officer Miller exercised inappropriate judgment by entering the building alone," Chief Johnson said. "This unilateral decision to enter the building and to continue pursuit deeper into the building upon making contact with Mr. Taylor, along with failing to communicate with fellow officers or develop an arrest plan, created an environment of cascading consequences that produced in unrecoverable outcome."
A grand jury later took no action against Miller.
The Arlington City Council formally approved the full and final $850 settlement with an 8-0 vote at Tuesday night's council meeting.
Taylor Family Attorney Michael Heiskell said, "The family is still hurting still grieving the loss of their child."
He continued, "When you lose a child especially in the way that this was done you never really get over it but this is a step to find a pathway for them to recover, to build a legacy for their son, and hopefully to be a beacon to others of how these things occur and try and prevent them from occurring again."
The CBS11 I-Team took a look at how this settlement compares to the City of Arlington's other law enforcement claims: