Minneapolis will pay $365,000 to a man who was struck in the head by a rubber bullet fired by police during the unrest following George Floyd’s murder more than four years ago.
Abdi Adam, then 56, said he was waiting for a bus and had nothing to do with protests outside the Third Precinct police station the day before it was overrun and set ablaze by a mob on May 28, 2020.
The payment settles a lawsuit Adam filed last year and was approved 8-0 by the City Council on Thursday afternoon after a closed-door meeting with attorneys. Council members made no public statements before the vote.
It’s the latest in a string of payments totaling millions of dollars that the city has made to people, including journalists and bystanders, who were injured by police during the protests and riots in actions that have since been described as a pattern of unconstitutional behavior by the U.S. Department of Justice.
According Adam’s lawsuit, peaceful protests were taking place outside the south Minneapolis police station at dusk four days after Floyd was murdered by police officer Derek Chauvin. Police had given no order to disperse as Adam, a math tutor who had fled Somalia as a refugee around 1994, was “peacefully waiting for the bus.”
Without warning, a police officer fired a 40-millimeter rubber projectile from the roof of the station, striking Adam in the forehead. A photograph accompanying the lawsuit shows protesters helping Adam, who is holding a bandage to his head and face, en route to a hospital.
The identity of the officer who fired the projectile hasn’t been made public, according to the court file. According to Adam’s complaint, which refers to officers as John Does, no reports were made by officers, and no police came to Adam’s aid.
But Adam’s attorney said his team determined who the officer was.
