A federal judge on Tuesday approved a $4.1 million settlement between Kansas City, Missouri, police and the family of Cameron Lamb, who was shot and killed in his own driveway by a white officer in 2019. The agreement brings an end to a more than six-year saga that has strained relations between the city’s police and the Black community.
The settlement requires neither the police department nor former officer Eric DeValkenaere to admit guilt. In 2021, a jury found him guilty of second-degree involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action in Lamb’s death, making him the first Kansas City officer to be convicted of killing a Black man.
DeValkenaere and his partner were responding to an alleged physical altercation between Lamb (26), and his girlfriend.
Despite the fact that they did not have a warrant, the officers were waiting for him at his home with guns drawn. Lamb was backing into his garage when plainclothes officers pounced. He would be shot and killed in nine seconds.
DeValkenaere claimed the victim pointed a handgun at his partner, but evidence presented at his trial revealed that he planted the weapon, and the presiding judge ruled that the officers needlessly escalated the situation.
DeValkenaere served only one year of a six-year prison sentence before outgoing Gov. Mike Parson commuted it last December, causing widespread outrage in Kansas City’s Black community. The 45-year-old former cop is barred from ever working as a law enforcement officer in Missouri again.
Lamb’s mother, Laurie Bey, and other family members filed a federal civil suit alleging that DeValkenaere used excessive force and violated the Fourth Amendment, which protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures. The family sought over $10 million in compensatory damages.
The family’s attorneys will receive nearly half of the $4.1 million agreed upon on Tuesday, according to the Kansas City Star. Each plaintiff will receive nearly $474,500 in fees, while Lamb’s father, Bobby Lamb, who was not involved in the lawsuit, will receive $50,000. A trust has been set up for Lamb’s three children.
According to Fox 4, Kansas City police will be held liable for the entire amount, with DeValkenaere not required to pay anything.
“The Parties in this lawsuit, without any admission of liability or fault in any way by any party, and in recognition of the cost and unpredictability of litigation, desire to compromise and settle all claims for injuries and/or damages related to the allegations in the lawsuit,” wrote U.S. District Court Judge Beth Phillips in her order approving the settlement.
The reaction from Kansas City’s Black community was mixed.
“On the one hand, I am happy for the family of Cameron Lamb, the 26-year-old Black man fatally shot by ex-Kansas City police detective Eric DeValkenaere,” wrote Toriano Porter, a member of the Kansas City Star’s editorial board, in an X post. “By contrast, I am equally disappointed that he and KCPD admitted no fault in this case.”
One citizen wrote, “KCPD agrees to pay millions to the family of Cameron Lamb, a black man killed by a white detective.
This is the minimum amount of justice that these family members deserve! They deserve a conviction, but I’m glad it’s coming to the Lamb family!”
The settlement concludes a six-year saga that began with Lamb’s death in December 2019.
A civil case that strained relations between Kansas City police and the Black community,
