Pasadena Settles Anthony McLain Suit for $7.5M. White Cop Murdered Black Man by Shooting Him in the Back as He Fled After Unlawful Seizure. Video Contradicted Cops who Claimed to See Gun

The city of Pasadena will pay $7.5 million to the three young children of a Black man fatally shot by a police officer as ran away during a traffic stop last year.

The settlement covers one of three lawsuits filed by the relatives of Anthony McClain.

“Sadly, the money being paid on behalf of the city will not bring my son’s father back to life,” Kimberley Jenkins, the mother of one of McClain’s children, said in a statement from her attorney, John Burton. “We are still waiting for the officer who shot and killed him to be held accountable.”

Anthony McClain, a 32-year-old father of three, was shot by a white officer during a traffic stop on Aug. 15, the Pasadena Police Department said.

Around 7:52 p.m., officers stopped a four-door, dark-colored Infiniti without a front license plate. McClain was the passenger. 

When police asked the driver for his license, the driver said his license was suspended. The driver cooperated with police after being asked to get out of the car, the department said.

McClain, who was also asked to get out of the car, is seen on video getting out, then running away from the officers. There appears to be no lawful basis for the cops to detain or seize the Black man because he was the passenger in the vehicle. While a passenger may be ordered out of a vehicle for officer safety the Supreme Court has explained that unless the officer has a reasonable articulable suspicion, he may not further detain a passenger. Maryland v. Wilson, 519 U.S. 408 (1997). Cops apparently did no articulate any reason they wanted to detain McLain. The driver may have been under arrest for something but that did not provide the police any justification for detaining or arresting McClain. Flight alone is not a basis for an arrest.

Police say he reached for an item in his waistband, which they believed to be a firearm.

“The natural swinging movement of the individual’s arms while running revealed what both officers immediately recognized as a firearm in his left hand,” according to the department.

With two officers chasing him, McClain can be seen turning and looking at the officers over his right shoulder. Police say they feared he was turning back to shoot at them, so the officer closest to McClain shot at him twice.

It wasn’t immediately clear that he had been shot, as he continued to run “for a considerable distance,” police said. He eventually fell.

McClain sustained at least one gunshot wound, and was given immediate medical attention, according to the department. Paramedics arrived and transported him to a hospital, where he died.

Caree Harper, the McClain family’s attorney, said what police saw in the video was a large metal belt buckle, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Neither McClain nor the second officer fired a weapon. No weapon was found on McClain, but a gun was recovered across the street.

“The death of Anthony McClain in 2020 was a tragic end to the life of a father of three minor children,” the city said in a statement. “This settlement, with no admission of guilt or wrongdoing, will prevent further prolonged and expensive proceedings. The Los Angeles [County] District Attorney’s Office continues its review of the 2020 incident and the Pasadena Police Department’s administrative review is pending.”