The mother of a woman killed minutes after police told her they could not arrest her estranged husband on a protection order violation has settled her lawsuit against Metro Nashville .
The Metro Nashville Council approved the $250,000 settlement to Kimberly Jones-Mbuyi during its Tuesday night meeting. Jones-Mbuyi sued Metro in November 2022, about one year after her daughter Michaela Carter’s death.
The Metro Nashville Police Department also made two changes to its domestic violence policy in January, apparently as a result of the lawsuit, a letter shared with The Tennessean shows.
“I’ve been fighting the last two years of my life, fighting through the pain, fighting through the grief. Though I didn’t save my daughter, I hope to save any other domestic violence victims in her name,” Jones-Mbuyi said during the public comment period at Tuesday’s Metro Council meeting. “She wants me to fight. She wants me to keep fighting, and I will. For Michaela, we always will.”
Jones-Mbuyi’s attorney Daniel Horwitz said in a statement that “Nashville is safer today because of Mrs. Jones-Mbuyi’s advocacy and her determination to use her family’s unspeakable tragedy for good.”