Cop Who Refused To Shoot Suicidal Man Wins Settlement

WEIRTON, WV — A police officer in West Virginia who claimed he was fired for not shooting a black man who was distraught and attempting to commit "suicide by cop" reached a $175,000 settlement with the city of Weirton, West Virginia, the American Civil Liberties Union said on Monday.

The officer, Stephen Mader, filed a lawsuit in May 2017 alleging that he was fired in June 2016 for his decision to not shoot the man and that the Weirton Police Department made false allegations against him to impugn his judgement not to use deadly force. The man, Ronald D. Williams Jr., 23, of Pittsburgh, was shot and killed by an officer who arrived at the scene as backup, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit also claimed that the allegations against Mader were made to bolster the reasonableness of the other officer's use of force.

Mader responded to a domestic violence incident on May 6, 2016, where he confronted Williams. According to the lawsuit, Williams pleaded with Mader to "just shoot me," but Mader, an Afghanistan war veteran, used his training to attempt to de-escalate the situation. Mader believed that while Williams was holding a gun he intended to inflict self-harm but did not pose a threat to others, the lawsuit said. The gun was found to be not loaded.

"I saw then he had a gun, but it was not pointed at me," Mader told The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in September 2016.

Mader told the paper that he instructed Williams to put down the gun and Williams responded "just shoot me." Mader told the man he wasn't going to shoot him and Williams began to flick his wrist to get a reaction out of Mader, the officer said. Mader said he knew it was a suicide-by-cop situation and he thought he would be able to de-escalate the incident.

Two other officers arrived at the scene and Williams walked towards them waving his gun when one of the officers shot and killed him, the Post-Gazette reported. Authorities later determined that the officer was justified in shooting Williams.

According to the lawsuit, Mader was placed on administrative leave on May 6, 2016. He returned to work on May 12, 2016 and was again placed on administrative leave five days later. On June 7, 2016, Mader was fired due to his alleged "failure to meet probationary standards of an officer" and "apparent difficulties in critical incident reasoning."

"Upon information and belief, the Weirton Police Department terminated Mr. Mader's employment because he chose not to use deadly force to shoot and kill an African-American man, who was suicidal, and whom Mr. Mader reasonably believed did not pose a risk of death or serious bodily injury to Mr. Mader or others," the lawsuit said.

A hearing regarding Mader's termination was held June 26, 2016, and Mader was unable to obtain counsel to represent him till the day before the hearing, the lawsuit says. The city's decision to terminate Mader's employment was upheld.

In September 2016, the city's manager said Mader was fired because of two prior incidents involving the officer, according to the Post-Gazette. Mader's lawsuit says Weirton officials falsely claimed his employment was terminated due to "multiple" prior incidents.

"Officer Mader was fired for not shooting a Black man with a gun," the ACLU said in a press release. "The message the police department sent is tragically clear: Law enforcement in Weirton should err on the side of killing people."

Image courtesy ACLU of West Virginia