Aug 14, 2020

Omaha to pay more than $500K in stun gun death settlement

Posted Aug 14, 2020 7:39 PM

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - The city of Omaha has agreed to pay more than a half-million dollars to the mother of a mentally ill man who died in a confrontation with police in 2017.

The city will pay $550,000 to Renita Chalepah, the mother of 29-year-old Zachary Bearheels, to settle her wrongful death lawsuit, the Omaha World-Herald reported Friday.

Four city police officers were fired in the aftermath of Bearheels death on June 5, 2017, when the officers were called to an Omaha convenience store that Bearheels had refused to leave. Bearheels' family has said he suffered from mental illness and had been on his way to Oklahoma when he was kicked off a bus in Omaha for erratic behavior.

Police cruiser video showed Bearheels being repeatedly shocked with a stun gun and punched in the face by officers, with some of the blows coming after he was handcuffed and sitting limply on the ground.

Prosecutors later charged Scotty Payne, the officer who had used the stun gun on Bearheels, with assault and weapons use in the case, but a jury acquitted Payne in 2018. Earlier this year, an arbitration panel reinstated three of the fired officers in the case, but upheld Payne's firing.