Javier Ambler: Family awarded $5m after man killed by police over bright headlights in chase filmed by reality TV show
Law firm says settlement ‘sends a message that ignoring a person’s pleas that they cannot breathe will no longer be tolerated’
A family has been awarded $5m after Javier Ambler, a 40-year-old Black man, died after he was shot by Texas police using stun guns following a 2019 chase.
The 20-minute pursuit on 28 March 2019 began after Mr Ambler allegedly failed to dim his headlights to oncoming traffic. The chase was filmed by the now-cancelled reality TV show Live PD, but the footage wasn’t broadcast.
The wrongful death lawsuit was settled on Tuesday by commissioners in Williamson County, just north of the Texas capital of Austin, CBS News reported. The family lawsuit, which was launched last year, alleged that the officers had started the chase to create entertaining TV for the accompanying reality TV crew.
Mr Ambler was a former postal employee who died after police used stun guns on him numerous times, despite him saying that he was ill and unable to breathe, according to police body camera footage and a report from June 2020 by the Austin American-Statesman and KVUE-TV.
Two former Sheriff’s deputies have been charged with second-degree manslaughter and the previous sheriff in the county, Robert Chody, was indicted for evidence tampering – all of them have denied any wrongdoing.
The deputies were indicted by a grand jury in March, with their lawyers rejecting that the officers were responsible for the death of Mr Ambler and also pushing back on the idea that they had pursued the 40-year-old because he failed to dim his headlights. They said he was chased because of a “felony offence of evading arrest in a vehicle”.
Body camera footage has shown Mr Ambler telling officers that he wasn’t resisting them and that he was unable to breathe because of heart issues.
A custodial death report filed with the Texas Office of the Attorney General declared Mr Ambler’s death to be a homicide. The report said he died of congestive heart failure as well as hypertensive cardiovascular disease connected to morbid obesity in combination with forcible restraint, NBC News reported.
“The Commissioners Court approved a settlement in the Javier Ambler lawsuit of $5m. The County will pay approx. $1.6m with the remainder paid by the County’s insurance,” Williamson County tweeted on Tuesday.
“We’re very proud to have represented the Ambler family and reached a settlement that sends a message that ignoring a person’s pleas that they cannot breathe will no longer be tolerated,” the law firm Edwards Law tweeted on Tuesday.
Attorney Jeff Edwards said in a statement to the Austin American-Statesman that “while the Ambler family remains devastated by the loss of their son and loving father, they are proud that they fought for him”.
The paper reported that the settlement has to be paid in 14 days and that his children will each receive $1.5m and his parents will each receive $1m.
The A&E Network cancelled Live PD last year. The network said the video of Mr Ambler was never shown on TV because of their policy against showing someone dying.
Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott signed “The Javier Ambler Law” earlier this year, preventing law enforcement agencies from signing contracts with reality TV shows, CBS Austin reported.