A Life For $260,000: Houston Settles In Shooting Death Of Unarmed Man

HOUSTON, TX — The death occurred in October 2011. An officer with the Houston Police Department, Jason Rosemon, responded to a domestic disturbance call at a house in the city's Third Ward.

Kenny Releford, 37 at the time, was the reason for the call. He allegedly kicked in the door of the residence of an 87-year-old neighbor and sexually assaulted the senior citizen's nephew. According to a spokesman with the department, John Cannon, Rosemon went to Releford's home and requested to speak with him. What happened next has been in dispute since that October evening, and this week, the City of Houston agreed to pay Releford's surviving family $260,000 to settle the lawsuit resulting from the shooting.

The Houston Press reported on Thursday that the settlement was a rare win for survivors of unarmed victims of police shootings in Houston agains a department that nearly always ruled such shootings justified. The bar is high in such cases, as the Press reported:

... to win a civil rights lawsuit against the city, plaintiffs have to show that more than one of the city's police officers is a problem. They have to show that unchecked excessive force and failure to train or discipline officers are a widespread culture problem within the police department — an extremely high standard to meet.

The recent history of such incident in Houston demonstrates the difficulty of winning a settlement against the police force, the Press said:

At the time of Releford's death, of the 99 incidents in which people had been killed or injured by Houston police officers since 2009, not a single shooting was found "unjustified" by HPD internal affairs (In years prior, from 2005 to 2009, only two out of 170 shootings were found unjustified.) The apparently "justified" shootings, in the department's lingo, included the death of Brian Claunch, a mentally ill, double-amputee homeless man in a wheelchair whom an officer shot after Clautch wielded a ballpoint pen; and the death of Omar Ventura, who was shot by a drunk off-duty Houston officer who had gotten into a bar fight and thought (wrongly) that Ventura was going to pull a gun.

As part of the hearings related to the shooting, Rosemon testified that Releford answered the door and stepped onto the house's porch, one hand behind his back. Releford then, according to the officer, began yelling and moved toward him. Rosemon ordered him to stop and show both hands. Releford continued advancing. When the distance between the two was around 5 feet, Rosemon opened fire, shooting twice.

Releford was transported to Ben Taub General Hospital and died there later. But the story did not end there.

Some residents of the neighborhood, as reported by the Houston Chronicle and other media outlets, disputed Rosemon's testimony. Creole Scott, who lived across the street from Releford, said that both of his hands were in the air when he exited the house. Scott added that Releford fell when hit with the first shot, then got up. Rosemon fired again at that point, she said.

In a disturbing coda, text messages reviewed by a U.S. District Court judge, Keith Ellison, in his February 2016 ruling that found reasonable evidence supporting allegations that the Houston Police Department failed in preventing the use of excessive force, seem to demonstrate shocking callousness about the deaths of civilians. The text message exchange concerned Releford's shooting.

Officer Peter Buttitta: Hey bro, can you guys go at least 2 weeks without a shooting.
Officer Lara: Thats how we roll at South Central Bra! We too hard!
Officer Buttitta: Hahaha right…is he DOA?
Officer Lara: He was alive when enrt to hosp.
Officer Buttitta: Man bra, you better be careful…the list is shortening of officers who havent gotten into a shooting yet.

» See the complete story at the Houston Press

— Image: Wikimedia Commons/RoFra