California County Pays $1.5M Over Hospital Shooting

Contra Costa County will pay nearly $1.5 million to settle a lawsuit over the death of a knife-waving man who was shot by sheriff’s deputies in an emergency room.

The Contra Costa Times says the settlement was approved by county supervisors in July and reported last month.

Forty-seven-year-old Paul Hammond of Rio Vista was shot by deputies in 2009 as he waved a pocketknife he was using to cut his restraints in the emergency room at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center. He’d checked himself into the Martinez hospital for treatment of alcohol withdrawal symptoms and was agitated.

His four children filed a federal wrongful-death lawsuit last year. They claimed deputies used excessive force.