Louisiana police to pay $4.85m to daughter of Black motorist who died at officers’ hands in 2019

Police and sheriff’s office agree to settlement after Ronald Greene was fatally shocked and punched during 2019 arrest

Louisiana’s state police and a local sheriff’s office have agreed to pay $4.85m to the daughter of Ronald Greene, a Black motorist who was fatally shocked with a stun gun, punched and dragged during a 2019 arrest.

The settlement agreement was reached during a mediation that concluded on Tuesday evening, according to a source with direct knowledge of the talks. It is one of the more substantial legal outcomes for a death that otherwise yielded only misdemeanor convictions for two of the officers involved.

Neither spokespeople for Louisiana governor Jeff Landry nor the state’s attorney general, Liz Murrill, could immediately be reached for comment. An attorney for Greene’s daughter, Tayla, could not immediately be reached either.

Police body-worn camera footage of Greene’s death outside the Louisiana community of Monroe, withheld for two years but published by the Associated Press in 2021, showed troopers swarming Greene even as he evidently raised his hands, pleaded for mercy and wailed: “I’m your brother! I’m scared! I’m scared!”