Riverside settles wrongul death case for $395,000

The PE reports that the city of Riveside settled with the heirs of Summer Lane for $395,000. The case arose from an officer's shooting of Ms. Lane. She was driving a vehicle apparently trying to facilitate the escape of her companion who was in the middle of a scuffle with a police officer. It's hard to say exactly what happened but I was stuck by the account of witnesses at the scene.

"It was in the parking lot, witnesses said, that Lane drove up to the men in her Honda Civic and backed away several times, screaming for Grotness to get into the car. She knocked over a sign in front of the store and may have hit both men.

Grotness told police that Lane bumped into them with the car once. Several witnesses said Lane appeared to be trying to run the officer down, but they didn't know whether she had actually hit him.

Wilson said Lane ran over his left leg at least twice and bumped into him at least once while he was on the ground fighting with Grotness.

Police originally said Wilson had suffered a broken leg but later changed the injury to a slightly sprained ankle.

The struggle went on for four minutes without backup officers, with little help from a security guard and with a small group of onlookers "yipping and snorting on their cell phones, giving a blow-by-blow account" but offering no help, Barham said.

Very nice. Perhaps the whole matter could have been avoided if some of these people would have helped. But it seems that no one wants to get involved. I can understand not wanting to get hurt, but "yipping and snorting" hardly seems civic worthy.