Miami Beach officials have settled a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of Israel Hernandez-Llach, the 18-year-old street artist who died on Aug. 6, 2013 after he was shot in the chest with a Taser fired by a city cop who was chasing him for scrawling graffiti on a wall.
The teen’s death generated national media coverage regarding the use of Tasers by police in handling suspects and intense scrutiny of the Miami Beach Police Department, which two years earlier had faced widespread criticism over the shooting death of a suspect and the wounding of four bystanders on Memorial Day Weekend in 2011.
Within weeks of Hernandez-Llach’s death, his parents and sister sued the city, alleging Miami Beach cops used “wrongful, unnecessary and unreasonable force” to detain the young man and then failed to provide him with proper medical care when he showed signs of distress.
