Mother of Homeless Veteran Shot by Deputy Getting $375,000

Mother of combat veteran killed by deputy will get $375K
My News LA
Hillary Jackson
February 2, 2016

Atkinson’s mental illness was also cited as a contributing factor. Atkinson left his family and mental health treatment in Texas to live on the streets in Los Angeles.

The Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to pay out $375,000 to the mother of a homeless combat veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, who was fatally shot after threatening the deputy with a wooden dowel rod.

On the afternoon of Oct. 6, 2013, deputies encountered 49-year-old Darrell Atkinson hiding or crawling behind a line of grocery carts under an overpass of the Santa Monica (10) Freeway near Venice Boulevard and Cadillac Avenue.

A news release from the Sheriff’s Department issued shortly after the shooting said Atkinson grabbed a wooden stick from one of the shopping carts.

“The suspect suddenly armed himself with a wooden stick,” Deputy Mark Pope of the Sheriff’s Headquarters Bureau told a reporter following the shooting. “He advanced toward the deputies with the wooden stick overhead.”

The summary provided to the board referred to the weapon as a wooden club.
read more here