The family of Chance David Baker, who was fatally shot by Portland police in 2017, has come to an agreement on a lawsuit against the officer who killed him.
Baker was fatally shot on Feb. 18, 2017, after Portland police received reports of a man acting erratically and waving a long gun that one caller said could be an air rifle or an .22 caliber rifle, according to a report from the attorney general’s office released in March 2018.
The investigation by the Office of the Maine Attorney General, which investigates all uses of deadly force by Maine police officers, found in the March 2018 report that Sgt. Nicholas Goodman was justified in using deadly force because he could reasonably believe that the 22-year-old posed a deadly threat.
Soon after arriving on the scene, Goodman shot Baker in the head after Baker ignored a command not to pick up the gun and leveled it at the officer, according to the report. Before Goodman fired, someone at the scene reportedly yelled that Baker was either pulling the trigger or trying to clear a jammed round from the rifle’s chamber.
Baker was taken to nearby hospital and declared dead shortly after the shooting, the report states.
Baker had been wielding what appeared to be an actual firearm to the responding officers and several people at the scene but was later revealed to be an air rifle, according to the 2018 report. Baker had reportedly been drinking from a bottle of Colt 45 and a medical examiner later found him to have a blood alcohol concentration of about four times the legal driving limit.
While Goodman’s actions were found to be justified, Baker’s family filed a wrongful death suit against Goodman in his “individual capacity” as a City of Portland employee. The suit, filed by Baker’s mother and grandmother, asked for unspecified damages for violating his Fourth Amendment rights, according to the Portland Press Herald.
While the details of the settlement were not made public on Thursday, both parties reached an agreement to dismiss the case, according to the Portland newspaper.
Baker grew up in the Midwest and was homeless at the time of his death. His family told the Portland Press Herald that they believe he was struggling with undiagnosed mental health illness.