Editor’s Note: This is an installment in our occasional series, It’s Your Money, that looks more closely at public expenses that taxpayers may not realize they’re being asked to pay.
A man who was shot by an off-duty Honolulu police officer in a 7-Eleven parking lot in 2009 will get $150,000 from the city.
The Honolulu City Council approved the this month in a nearly unanimous decision.
Councilman Ikaika Anderson was the only one to oppose the vote, telling Civil Beat on Friday that he felt the officer was within his right to pull the trigger.
鈥淚 wasn鈥檛 comfortable that the city should be liable for the officer鈥檚 actions,鈥 Anderson said. 鈥淚 felt that the actions were warranted. It seemed to me that a reasonable person would come to the same conclusion that I would even if the matter went to court.鈥
In 2009, Honolulu police officer Keith Marini had just bought a cup of coffee at a 7-Eleven in Makaha when he was approached in his unmarked vehicle by Kiha Silva.
According to , authorities said Silva started to punch Marini and threatened to kill him.
Marini, who had more than two decades of policing experience, was reportedly seated in his vehicle when the attack occurred and defended himself by shooting Silva with his personal firearm.
But a federal lawsuit filed in 2011 paints a much different portrait of what happened that day. The lawsuit says that Marini fired a bullet into Silva鈥檚 stomach and then shot him in the back as he tried to get away.
Specifically, the lawsuit says Marini fired at Silva, who was unarmed, while he was on the ground crawling away from the vehicle with a bullet-wound in his abdomen, and that the off-duty officer did not assist him afterward or call for an ambulance.
The lawsuit alleges that the city 鈥渨hite-washed鈥 the incident despite the unnecessary use of force. Silva鈥檚 attorney, Paul V.K. Smith, of Schutter Dias & Smith, also blames the city for not disciplining Marini, who has since retired from the force.
Marini was not prosecuted for the incident, suggesting that HPD and the Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney鈥檚 Office may have accepted the justification for the shooting or did not have enough evidence to proceed with a case.
The $150,000 settlement is the 11th approved by the Honolulu City Council in 2013.
Other settlements include the city making a $35,000 payment to a convicted rapist, $550,000 to the family of another man who was electrocuted after touching a streetlight and $2.7 for flooding in Mapunapuna.
The total amount the council approved in 2013 is $5,245,562, which is about $1 million more than what it paid out in 2012.
Read Silva鈥檚 legal complaint here:
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About the Author
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Nick Grube is a reporter for Civil Beat. You can reach him by email at nick@civilbeat.org or follow him on Twitter at . You can also reach him by phone at 808-377-0246.