Robert Downen
Houston Chronicle
HOUSTON — Houston City Council on Wednesday approved a $1.2 million settlement with the family of Jordan Baker, an unarmed man who was fatally shot by a Houston police officer in 2014.
The settlement is among the largest in recent city history, and comes five years after HPD officer Juventino Castro was cleared by a grand jury in the shooting.
The shooting — and decision not to bring charges against Castro — sparked protests by local activists amid a wave of nationally publicized shootings of unarmed black individuals by police.
Baker’s mother filed a federal lawsuit in 2015, alleging her 26-year-old son’s constitutional rights were violated.
Castro was working a second job at a strip mall in the 5700 block of West Little York that had been the site of multiple robberies when he confronted Baker, who he said matched the description of the suspect in the break-ins.
After an altercation, Castro fatally shot Baker. In the lawsuit, attorneys for the Baker family alleged that Baker posed no threat, and cited nearly 200 previous cases in which Houston police officers went unpunished for shooting civilians, including those who were unarmed at the time.
Mayor Sylvester Turner said Wednesday that he was glad that “the matter had resolved itself” through court-ordered mediation.
“You never want to see any loss of life, period. You never want to see it. But it did occur,” Turner told reporters. “... And now we want to move forward recognizing that it takes the community and police working hand-in-hand. You don’t want to see a situation where the two are at odds with one another because the community becomes less safe.”