Officials in Georgia have offered a $350,000 legal settlement to a black man injured last year when a police officer violently slammed him to the ground after mistaking him for someone with an outstanding warrant.
Antonio Arnelo Smith, 47, filed a lawsuit against Valdosta City Council and other city officials in U.S. District Court a year ago.
A spokeswoman for Valdosta City Hall, Ashlyn Johnson, confirmed the settlement offer on Friday.
In addition to the $350,000 settlement, the city - which is in south Georgia just north of the Florida state line - also created a citizen review board to help oversee local police and make policy recommendations.
Antonio Arnelo Smith, 47, filed a lawsuit against Valdosta City Council in Georgia a year ago after he was thrown to the ground by a white officer who had mistaken him for someone with an outstanding warrant
In exchange for $350,000 and creation of a citizen review board, the city said Smith would drop all claims in his lawsuit.
Nathaniel Haugabrook, one of Smith's attorneys, said he still is reviewing the proposal.
Smith argued in his lawsuit that officers used excessive force and violated his civil rights during the ordeal on February 8, 2020.
Officers confronted Smith after a drugstore employee called police to report that a man was harassing customers and asking for money outside.
Officers found two suspects nearby who fit the description. They learned one them had an outstanding arrest warrant. The other was Smith.
Body camera footage of the incident showed Smith talking cooperatively with a black police officer as a white officer, identified as Lt. Billy Wheeler, crept up behind him.
The white officer then pinned Smith's hands behind his back and slammed him face-first to the ground.
'Oh my God, you broke my wrist!' Smith screamed on the recording as two more white Valdosta officers held him down and handcuffed him.
The white officer pinned Smith's hands behind his back and slammed him face-first to the ground. Smith screamed: 'Oh my God, you broke my wrist!'
Wheeler, the officer seen on camera wrapping Smith in a bear hug and slamming him to the ground, said in court filings that he mistakenly believed Smith was the wanted man
When an officer told Smith he was being arrested on an outstanding warrant, another immediately interjected that he was the wrong man
When an officer told Smith he was being arrested on an outstanding warrant, another immediately interjected that he was the wrong man.
Attorneys for Wheeler, the officer seen on camera wrapping Smith in a bear hug and slamming the man to the ground, said in court filings that he mistakenly believed Smith was the wanted man.
Police let Smith go without charges and he left the scene without waiting for paramedics to arrive.
Smith's attorney said on Friday that his client just 'wants to see all of this behind him'.
He said creation of a citizen panel to help oversee the Valdosta Police Department had been Smith's top priority in the lawsuit.
In a letter to city officials seeking a settlement before the lawsuit was filed, Smith's attorneys also asked for $700,000.
Filed four months after Smith's violent encounter with police, the lawsuit came amid a national outcry over police brutality against people of color, sparked by the May 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Police let Smith (pictured above after being slammed to the ground) go without charges and he left the scene without waiting for paramedics to arrive
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