Three Maryland towns will pay $5 million to the family of Anton Black, a 19-year-old Black youth who died as police restrained him in 2018, the family’s lawyers said Monday. The partial settlement comes nearly two years after the family filed a federal lawsuit, claiming three white officers—two of whom were off-duty—chased the teenager, stunned him with a Taser, and pinned him face-down for roughly six minutes on his mother’s doorstep. The 19-year-old’s mother, Jennell Black, said in a statement, “I had to watch those police officers kill my son, while he pleaded for his life and called out to me. There are no words to describe the immense hurt that I will always feel when I think back on that tragic day, when I think of my son.” As part of the agreement, the towns of Greensboro, Ridgely, and Centreville have agreed to train their officers on mental health response, implicit bias, and de-escalation techniques. “I hope the reforms within the police departments will save lives,” Jennell Black said, “and prevent any family from feeling the pain we feel every day.”
Read it at The Baltimore Sun
