Kipp Holloway Survives Police Shooting and Settles Civil Rights Suit against City of Cleveland and Officer for $375,000
Kipp Holloway was unarmed when he was unjustifiably and illegally shot by Cleveland police sergeant Timothy Patton in 2014. He survived to tell his story and sued Patton and the City of Cleveland for violating his civil rights.
Background
On May 21, 2014, Cleveland police sergeant Timothy Patton shot Kipp Holloway in the left arm. Kipp was unarmed, and had not possessed any weapon nor engaged in any threatening conduct in the moments leading up to the shooting.
The shooting took place at approximately 11:15 a.m. on a sunny day, inside a garage with a large hole in the roof on East 128th Street, near Shaw Avenue. Kipp was inside the garage, lying on the ground. Patton entered the garage while sweeping the neighborhood for suspects in a non-violent breaking and entering offense at a nearby warehouse. A related trial showed that Kipp was cleared of any wrongdoing in association with the breaking and entering, while other individuals were convicted for the crime.
Though Kipp identified himself to Patton while inside the garage, and though he was completely unarmed at the time, Patton alleged that he shot Kipp because he jumped up as Patton neared his location in the garage, and Patton claimed that Kipp's hand somehow looked like a silver pistol.
Patton claimed, in a demonstration of the shooting, that Kipp's right hand was up in the air, pointing toward the sky, at the time Patton shot at him. But Patton's story didn't add up: Kipp was shot in the left forearm, and not in the right arm. Kipp also testified that he was lying on the ground at the time he was shot, and that his arms were not in the air.
As a result of Patton’s single shot, Kipp Holloway suffered serious injuries, including permanent disability in his left hand and lower arm.
Approach & Resolution
Friedman, Gilbert + Gerhardstein filed a civil rights lawsuit for Kipp Holloway in 2015. Kipp was represented by Terry Gilbert, Gordon Friedman, and Jacqueline Greene.
Kipp's lawsuit showed that Patton lied about the events surrounding the shooting, and that the City of Cleveland failed to train Patton and other Cleveland police officers in tactics and strategy for undertaking single-officer searches. In his decision to discipline Patton for this shooting, Chief of Police Calvin Williams noted that Patton’s “employment of poor tactics caused shooting of unarmed individual and placed officer at risk.”
Kipp demanded accountability from Patton and the City in his lawsuit. In late 2017, the City of Cleveland settled Kipp's case for $375,000. The settlement was finalized in 2018.