From [HERE] A Travis County jury last week awarded the family of Landon Nobles $67 million in damages in a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court against Austin police, who shot the 24-year-old Black man after an altercation on East Sixth Street in May 2017.

The stunning sum far surpasses any amount awarded to families of people killed by the Austin Police Department in the past decade; those payouts cumulatively total just over $8 million. Prior to the Nobles verdict, the largest sum awarded in a police excessive force case was a $3.25 million settlement in 2017 with Ketty Sully, the mother of 17-year-old David Joseph, shot and killed by an Austin police officer in February 2016.

Landon Nobles, 24 at the time, was shot and killed by Austin Police Department officers Sgt. Richard Egal and Cor. Maxwell Johnson on May 7, 2017, after a crowd dispersed from in front of bars on East Sixth Street in downtown Austin.

Witnesses in the crowd claim Nobles was not displaying a gun and posed no danger when he was shot in the back, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit said Nobles was shot “in the back multiple times.”

According to the complaint:

On or about May 7th, 2017, Landon Nobles, a twenty-four-year-old African-American Austinite, went to 6th Street in Austin to celebrate a birthday with his cousins Royie Nobles and Frankie Nobles. At approximately 2:30 am, Landon Nobles, Royie Nobles, and Frankie Nobles noticed a crowd of people gathered near the Jackalope and Moose Knuckle Pub in the 400 block of East Sixth Street and decided to observe the crowd. There was much jockeying and posturing as two people interacted as if “fixing to fight.” A small crowd gathered around the fighters.

The crowd dispersed after a loud popping noise emanated from the crowd. Landon Nobles walked away to the nearby intersection and then after a few minutes started walking briskly away from the corner of Sixth Street and Trinity Street toward 7th and Trinity Street, when suddenly an unidentified Austin Police Officer threw a bike in front of Landon Nobles, which caused him to fall.

At no time did any officer of the Austin Police Department announce their presence or instruct Landon Nobles to stop.

As Landon Nobles attempted to regain his balance, he was subsequently shot in the back multiple times by Sergeant Richard Egal and Corporal Maxwell Johnson. According to several non-police witnesses, Landon Nobles was not displaying a gun and posed no danger to Sergeant Richard Egal, Corporal Maxwell Johnson, or anyone for that matter at the time of the shooting, or at any time at all. There is no evidence that Defendants Sergeant Richard Egal and Corporal Maxwell Johnson or any third party feared for their lives or the lives of anyone else at the time lethal force was used against Landon Nobles.

Landon was killed right there on the street and he was left to die in the gutter as he bled out from the gunshot wounds inflicted by Officers Egal and Maxwell Johnson who shot Landon in the back. Twenty minutes later, Landon Nobles was later rushed to Brackenridge Hospital by Austin-Travis EMS where he was pronounced dead at approximately 3:08 am on May 7th, 2017. 16. As a result of Sergeant Richard Egal and Corporal Maxwell Johnson’s unreasonable and senseless use of deadly force, Landon Nobles died after suffered agonizing pain.

Based on media reports, Austin Police officers use deadly force against African- American suspects at a higher rate than white suspects, even though African- Americans comprise only 8% of Austin’s population. Additionally, the Austin Police Department utilizes deadly force against unarmed individuals disproportionately when the victims are African-American.

The verdict comes as the city and its police officers face numerous excessive force lawsuits stemming from APD's violent response to peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters in the summer of 2020. The Nobles case was defended by city staff attorneys, who did not need to pay for outside counsel for the officers involved; that's not so in at least some of the BLM cases working their way through the courts.