$3.5M settlement for family of Barber County man killed in 2017 beanbag shooting
It’s been nearly three years since Kristina Myers’ husband died after a Barber County’s undersheriff shot him in the chest at close range with a homemade beanbag round that was bought off the internet from a man who made it in his basement.
Attorneys for Kristina Myers on Monday announced that she had reached what’s thought to be the largest civil settlement to date in a police-involved shooting in Kansas — $3.5 million.
Barber County officials and the Kansas County Association of Multiline Pool, a self-funded insurance pool representing cities and counties across the state, agreed to the payout in March. But a confidentiality clause attached to the settlement agreement prevented Myers and her attorneys from disclosing the amount until Sunday, when the gag order expired.
Kristina Myers sued Barber County Undersheriff Virgil “Dusty” Brewer and Barber County Sheriff Lonnie Small in federal court in November 2017, not quite two months after her husband, Steven P. Myers died, alleging his shooting was “unjustifiable,” “wrongful,” “reckless” and violated the law on use of deadly force.
Settlement negotiations in the case “went for multiple months during litigation,” one of her attorneys, Michael Kuckelman said in an interview with The Eagle. But they reached a peak in January after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit refused to review a June 2018 ruling by U.S. District Judge Carlos Murguia saying that Brewer was not immune from civil liability in Myers’ death at that time.
Kuckelman, of Overland Park-based firm Kuckelman Torline Kirkland, said the hefty settlement not only provides financially for Myers’ children, “who are now fatherless,” but he hopes also will serve as “a wake-up call to senior officers to start throwing the bad apples out.”
“The majority of law enforcement in the state of Kansas are good, honorable people. But we have an element of what I call ‘bad apples’ in multiple justifications,” Kuckelman said, adding that his calls to terminate both Brewer and the Barber County sheriff have so far went unheeded.
“Small counties cannot pay these settlements over and over again. They will have to change the way they do business.”
He added: “I hope Barber County taxpayers start demanding answers from the elected officials about how the Barber County Sheriff’s Department is being run.”
Attorneys for Brewer and Small did not return messages seeking comment.
Historically, cases like Myers’ have been hard to win in Kansas because of qualified immunity, a U.S. Supreme Court-created concept meant to shield government officials from liability unless their actions violate “clearly established” federal law but that has been almost impossible for victims to overcome even in cases where constitutional violations are glaring.
Myers, 42, died on Oct. 6, 2017, after he was shot in the chest with a so-called “less lethal” beanbag round that Brewer fired from a 12-gauge shotgun at close range. Brewer was among law enforcement officers who responded to a call that Myers, a ranch and oilfield worker, was drunk in front of Buster’s bar in Sun City holding a shotgun that night. The sheriff, undersheriff and two deputies didn’t arrive on the scene until about 41 minutes later, though, after Myers had already gone home, put away the gun and taken his dog for a walk.
Small, the sheriff, led deputies and a K-9 dog on a house-to-house search for Myers about found him in a shed about 15 feet from one resident’s back door. Within seconds of Small ordering Myers to come out of the shed — which he did, with his hands empty and at his sides — Brewer fired the beanbag round at his chest. The men were six to eight feet apart at the time.
Myers died at the scene. Body camera video recorded Small telling Brewer after the shooting: “A little luck and he’ll just pass out and die.”
The civil lawsuit contends Brewer was not trained on using beanbag rounds, which are small fabric pillows filled with lead pellets.
The one used on Myers was made by a man in Michigan who sold them online, was never tested and “even if used appropriately by a trained officer is deadly,” Kuckelman said. Brewer got it from a former colleague he worked with in Texas, he said.
In addition to the civil lawsuit, Brewer is facing a manslaughter charge in connection with Steven Myers’ death. He is scheduled to go to trial in September. A condition of his bond forbids him from engaging in law enforcement activity, The Eagle reported in 2018.
Public disclosure of the settlement amount comes as nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, at the hands of a white Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, entered their seventh day.
Kristina Myers and her family were among around 1,800 people who showed up for Saturday’s peaceful gathering outside of the Wichita Police Department’s North Bureau at 21st and Hillside, to protest the killing.
Floyd’s killing “brought back a lot of anger” she felt over her own husband’s death, she said.
“Just because someone has been given a badge does not given them a right to murder someone,” she said, adding that for her, Floyd’s death “breaks my heart” and causes “extreme frustration.”
“We have a responsibility having had this happen to us to support other people.”
Much like in Floyd’s case, footage of Steven Myers’ killing that was recorded by police body camera helped expose police misconduct and cleared his name, Kristina Myers said.
“Had there not been the body camera video, my husband’s case would’ve been swept under the rug.”
She said by now her older two children, 14 and 11, have had enough time to get through the worst of their father’s death.
But her 4-year-old, who was a toddler when her father was killed, “is just now hitting the grieving process.”
Kristina Myers and her attorneys said they will continue to push for Barber County to fire both Brewer and the sheriff.
They are also calling for the body that oversees police training, the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training, to revoke Brewer’s certification so he can no longer work as a law enforcement officer.
Gary Steed, executive director of C-POST, said by email Monday that there are “no pending certification actions regarding Virgil Brewer” and that the commission does not disclose whether a specific officer is under investigation.
This story was originally published June 1, 2020 at 7:28 AM.
