Fairfax County, Va., has agreed to settle a lawsuit nearly five years after a police officer shot and killed an unarmed man.
According to The Washington Post, the county has agreed to pay the family of Salvatore J. Culosi $2 million to settle a lawsuit the family filed.
In 2006, officer Deval Bullock, a member of the county's SWAT team, shot Culosi. At the time, he was standing in the open doorway of an undercover detective’s sport-utility vehicle discussing winnings from a football game. The victim had been under investigation by the county regarding illegal betting since 2005.
Officer Bullock said that he accidentally fired his weapon and shot Culosi when his sport-utility vehicle’s door bumped into him. Culosi family lawyers say that Bullock intended to shoot the victim and that he was nowhere near his vehicle’s door.
Culosi’s parents filed a suit in federal court in Alexandria in 2007, and their attorneys began their own investigation. The trial was scheduled to begin next week.
