The City Council deferred making a decision on the proposed $1.5 million settlement Opens in a new tab of a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the widow of an unarmed 29-year-old Black man who was shot and killed by police following a fight with officers responding to a 911 call at a Nuuanu home in April 2021.
Lindani Sanele Myeni was shot four times by police on April 14, 2021 Opens in a new tab, after he fought with officers who responded to a 911 call from a renter at 91 Coelho Way who alleged Myeni told her and her husband that he had video footage of them, that he lived there, owned the cat and was hunting.
Council members heard more than an hour of testimony from city leaders opposing the settlement and from Myeni’s widow and her attorney, who urged Council members to approve it.
Lindani Myeni’s widow, Lindsay Myeni, told Council members she had a baked chicken dinner on the table and was waiting for her husband the night he was killed. Standing before more than two dozen uniformed Honolulu police officers, she told them that “not one of you looked me in the eye.”
“I wish you talked to him like a human and not exterminate him … Despite the pain in my heart, I don’t hate any of you, even the two (officers) who murdered him,” said Lindsay Myeni, speaking through tears.
Removing items from a green plastic bag on the
lectern, Lindsay Myeni showed the Council members the bullet-riddled, blood-soaked clothes her husband was wearing the night he died.
“This is his clothes and I have to keep them because this is what I have,” she said. Lindsay Myeni said one of their two children told her the two officers who fired the fatal shots should leave the department and become firemen.
She said she wants them to apologize to her children for killing their dad before quitting HPD to become firefighters.
Her attorney, Jim Bickerton, said prosecutors investigating the shooting left out critical evidence about the lighting at the scene.
He told Council members that Lindani Myeni was assaulted when officers shone a flashlight in his face and ordered him to the ground, only identifying themselves as police after they shot him four times.
He noted that the two officers who fired the fatal shots did not attend Wednesday’s Council meeting and did not submit
testimony in favor of the proposed settlement.
“I don’t see the individual officers here urging you to reject this,” said Bickerton, who noted the proposed settlement was not a victory for anyone, but a compromise that allowed all parties to move on. “We were fighting for a much larger award than that
($1.5 million). It’s a compromise … it’s not real justice for one person.”
Three officers who responded to the 911 call that night were injured, including one who shot Myeni once with his firearm. That officer suffered a fractured orbital bone, memory loss, two herniated discs, a concussion and had shoulder surgery has not returned to active duty.
Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm, Mayor Rick Blangiardi and Honolulu police Chief Arthur “Joe” Logan urged the Council to reject the settlement and go to trial.
“… He (Lindani Myeni) said (to the people who called police) he’s not afraid of the police … He had just been told the police were going to be called … You could see things clearly,” said Alm, noting he’s charged officers in connection with fatal shootings and it was not a rubber stamp for police. “HPD,
in this case, acted
appropriately.”
Logan backed the conclusions made in Alm’s June 30, 2021, report that declared the officers were justified when they shot and killed Myeni.
“There are times to settle and there are times to go to court,” said Logan, emphasizing that the officers should be defended in a civil trial. “Win or lose,
(a trial shows) we stand
behind our police
department.”
During the meeting Wednesday, Council member Andria Tupola said she never saw Alm’s report or knew that the officers had been cleared of any
wrongdoing.
Vice Chair Esther Kia‘aina, visibly frustrated, asked why the prosecuting attorney, police department and corporation counsel were not on the same page.
“It puts the Council members in an awkward position,” Kia‘aina said. “I’m just a little baffled at the lack of communication … Why do we have this disconnect?”
City Corporation Counsel Dana M.O. Viola recommended the city pay the family of Lindani Myeni
$1.5 million but declined to discuss the facts of the case Wednesday in the public portion of the meeting, asking Council members to adjourn to executive session.
She said her office had “extensive discussions” with the officers involved and notified them of the
settlement.
Chair Tommy Waters, noting that two Council members would be unable to attend the executive session, suggested decision-making on the settlement be put off until the next full Council meeting on Nov. 7.
Council members voted unanimously to defer decision-making.
Myeni, who suffered
from Stage 3 chronic traumatic encephalopathy Opens in a new tab, commonly known as CTE, exhibited bizarre behavior during interactions with police at Kewalo Basin the night he was killed, a factor Alm noted might explain his aggressive actions.
Myeni interfered with a police investigation of a car break-in at Kewalo Basin, asked officers there for money to buy food and tried to enter one of their patrol cars.
The State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers President Robert Cavaco, a Honolulu police lieutenant, sent a letter to Council members Tuesday saying that on behalf of “more than 2,600 police officers, we write to urge you not to authorize the
settlement.”
Cavaco noted that officers repeatedly used nonlethal tactics and verbal commands to end the violent encounter with Myeni. He wrote that the facial fractures suffered by one of the officers could have killed him and his colleagues and reporting parties would have been in “grave danger” if Myeni gained control of the seriously injured officers
service weapon.
“We understand sometimes it may be cheaper to just settle a case. Please realize that the dollar cost to settle this case pales in comparison to the other costs. Settling a case in favor of a vicious cop attacker puts the lives of every officer in danger. You are in essence, offering a financial reward for the attempted murder of a police officer and that puts other criminals on notice. Providing a large payout to the family of man who seriously injured our officers will be viewed as offensive and degrading by your officers,” wrote Cavaco.
