SEATTLE (AP) — A Seattle jury ruled Thursday that the driver of a vehicle that struck and killed a Black Lives Matter protester on a closed freeway must pay the protester’s family $6 million.
The same jury in King County found that the state of Washington was not negligent in the death, reported the Seattle Times.
Summer Taylor, 24, was struck and killed by a car driving the wrong way on Interstate 5 i n Seattle during protests in July 2020. Another protester was seriously injured.
Taylor’s family sued the state, saying officials did not take adequate precautions that would have protected the protesters on the interstate bridge. The driver, Dawit Kelete, 30, was sentenced in September 2023 to 6.5 years in prison for vehicular homicide and other charges.
The State Patrol closed the interstate during overnight protests over the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers. An attorney for Taylor’s family said the state would as well blame it on not closing an exit ramp properly from the highway.
“No patrol car, no nail strips, no flashing lights, no barricade, nothing. … It’s negligence,” the family’s attorney, Karen Koehler, said during closing arguments.
The state had argued that Taylor’s presence on the highway was illegal, and Taylor and Kelete were both guilty.
“Had any of them chosen to follow the law that the rest of us are bound by, this is not happening — this accident is never happening,” Steve Puz, senior counsel for the Washington Attorney General’s Office, said during opening statements.
Damages included $1.75 million for each of Taylor’s parents and $2.5 million for their brother.
Taylor was a veterinary assistant who one day hoped to attend veterinary school at Washington State University. Taylor was remembered by their family as someone dedicated to race and LGBTQ+ justice.