DENVER (KDVR) — Late Monday afternoon, Denver’s City Council voted to approve a multi-thousand-dollar settlement made against the city and its police department in two resolutions.
Both Shaiitarrio Brown and Brittany King will get $162,500 each, according to council paperwork.
The couple behind the complaint filed the lawsuit back in 2021 after they say Denver police targeted them with the use of pepper balls, which ended in some pretty nasty injuries for both.
Brown and his, then-pregnant, fiancée, King, said this happened in late May of 2020, during the height of the George Floyd protests. There’s even video showing a disturbing scene of their car being pounded with pepper balls as they were just trying to make a food delivery. The video went viral at the time.
FOX31 spoke to Brown just days after the incident.
Brown told the Problem Solvers, “Those officers could’ve killed my child, and we want some repercussions of that.”
The 18-page lawsuit, filed in 2021, revealed both Brown and King were unhoused and drove for work. Brown told FOX31 that he was driving in the area that night because he was trying to make a food delivery so he could have enough funds to afford a hotel room rather than sleeping in his car with his fiancée.
He told FOX31 a police vehicle initially drove by and fired a pepper ball shot that was unprovoked. When he tried to drive toward a commander to learn why someone fired at his car, other officers started launching more pepper balls at them.
“We want change in reforms and policies,” Brown said.
At 9 months old, the couple’s child began to show “pronounced developmental delays,” according to the suit. FOX31 asked to speak with the family, but their lawyers have yet to respond to the request.