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A couple has been awarded $325,000 after Denver police blasted their car with pepper balls in 2020 during George Floyd demonstrations that they weren't participating in.
According to The Denver Post, Shaiitarrio Brown and Brittany King, who was pregnant when police hit her with pepper balls, have settled their lawsuit against the city after sustaining injuries due to officers' actions on May 30, 3020.
In the suit, the couple said they were driving near Denver's Civic Center while working for DoorDash when a Denver officer fired a small plastic ball known as a “pepper ball," which contains irritating chemicals that burn the skin and eyes. Brown got out of the car and yelled at police, "You shot a car with a pregnant woman in it!”
Officers responded by firing dozens of pepper balls at the vehicle, hitting King, who was 19 weeks pregnant at the time, in the stomach and Brown in the face through an open window, as seen in a bystander video that went viral.
Following the incident, the couple went to the hospital, where they found out that King had chemicals in her system from the pepper balls, per their lawsuit. King, according to the suit, struggled to swallow and eat for months due to burns in her throat. More, the substances found in the pepper balls have been linked to pregnancy loss and birth defects, the suit states.
“When I was pregnant, it was just hoping,” King recalled, per The Washington Post. “I was just waiting for birth. To see her that first time, to make sure she’s okay.”
According to the suit, the couple's daughter, who they welcomed in October 2020, began exhibiting severe developmental deficits at nine months, including hip dysplasia, a disorder that causes the hip joint of a newborn to be deformed.
Denver's Office of the Independent Monitor said there was "no policy violation" after an internal review of the 2020 incident.
“We got money out of it,” Brown said. “But we’ve still got no accountability, so there’s no closure for us at the end of the day.”
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