WEST MILWAUKEE -- The family of Adam Trammell will receive $2.5 million, after the Village of West Milwaukee on Monday, June 17 approved a resolution to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit. This, according to a news release Tuesday, June 18 from Attorney Robin Shellow and Attorney Mark Thomsen.
The family of Trammell filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in May 2018 against the West Milwaukee police chief, several officers, and the village itself -- alleging officers violated Trammell's constitutional rights by using excessive and deadly force.
Trammell, 22, died after a Taser was used on him at least 15 times by officers who responded to his apartment near 54th and Greenfield on May 25, 2017. Authorities at the time of the incident said they were responding to a report of a man inside an apartment building, naked, speaking incoherently, and flooding his unit.
Body camera video showed officers looking for Trammell. Officers were mistakenly calling Trammell "Brandon."
Once inside the apartment, officers located Trammell in the shower. Police cited Trammell as being combative. He was then tased multiple times, according to the lawsuit, even when he was handcuffed. Trammell later died.
An autopsy for the 22-year-old concluded his cause of death was "excited delirium, and the manner of death was undetermined."
The lawsuit said Trammell suffered from mental illness -- and was "only in need of psychological or medical care." Trammell's attorneys cited the conduct of the defendants as "unlawful, extreme, malicious, outrageous and/or intentional."
The Greenfield Police Department investigated this incident. In April 2018, a letter to West Milwaukee Police Chief Dennis Nasci from the district attorney said after "reviewing available body camera footage, the Taser reports, talking to medical experts and use of force experts, and reviewing use of force training policies involving the deployment of electronic control devices," there was "no basis to conclusively link Mr. Trammell's death to actions taken by the police officers."
Below is a statement from Attorney Shellow and Attorney Thomsen relating to the settlement reached in the case: