Living in Florence, it’s likely that you’ve been to the border between Kentucky and Ohio. The Ohio River is a popular place for people to have parties and to go out on the water, but it can also be dangerous.
In a case in Boone County, the sheriff’s office will pay out $3.5 million in a case involving a car of individuals shot by a sheriff’s deputy on the way out from a party in 2014.
The news report states that it took 35 depositions, 11 expert testimonies and 21,000 pages of documents to come to the resolution in the case. The Boone County Sheriff’s Office settled with the woman’s family.
On the night of the incident, it was around 2:00 a.m. when the woman was leaving a party on River Road. The deputy was checking the drivers of each car that left, seeing if they were sober. He attempted to stop the girl’s vehicle, but she did not listen to commands, he claimed. He jumped onto the hood, avoiding getting run over, but he then shot through the windshield and killed the driver.
The passengers and the family filed a civil suit in 2015 because the Boone County grand jury decided not to indict the officer on charges. The settlement comes as a relief to the family, especially because it means the sheriff’s office will make changes that keep everyone safer. They’ll implement the use of body cameras and encourage new training moving forward. Reforms may be made to policies in the office as well, preventing incidents like this from happening again.