RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – The City of Richmond has reached multiple out-of-court settlements in cases tied to a 2020 incident that involved police pepper spraying three people walking on the sidewalk and the man who caught it on video from his second-story apartment window.
Demonstrations calling for accountability in the wake of the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in 2020 erupted while the world also grappled with the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Locally, protests in Richmond escalated in late May and June of that year, leading to curfews , clashes between protesters and police , arrests and businesses getting damaged and looted .
Richmond faced criticism over its police response to the protests, including the use of tear gas on peaceful protesters , leading to multiple settlements with demonstrators totaling more than $1 million and the ousting of the city’s police chief .
FROM 2022: Richmond paid $1.6M to settle police lawsuits from 2020 protesters