Des Moines will pay $225,000 to family of unarmed man killed by police officer

Des Moines will pay $225,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of an unarmed man killed by police in 2015.

Ryan Bolinger, 28, of West Des Moines was shot by Officer Vanessa Miller through the closed driver’s side window of her squad car after a low-speed chase on the city's west side.

The police department determined the shooting was justified and a grand jury found no basis for criminal charges against Miller.

Bolinger's family sued the city, alleging wrongful death and claiming the police department was negligent in its training and supervision of Miller. A trial was scheduled to begin in January.

Depositions in the civil case revealed that Miller falsely told investigators in the immediate aftermath of the shooting that she repeatedly warned Bolinger to "get back" from her car before she fired her weapon.

That claim was later disproved by the video and audio recordings from Miller's patrol car.

The June 9, 2015, shooting occurred after Bolinger pulled alongside the patrol car of Officer Ian Lawler, who was handling a traffic stop near Merle Hay Road. According to police, Bolinger got out of his vehicle and began behaving "erratically."

After Lawler told him to pull into a nearby parking lot, Bolinger drove off, with Lawler — and, in a separate car, Miller — following.

After making a U-turn, Bolinger stopped abruptly near Urbandale Avenue. Lawler pulled in front of Bolinger’s car, and Miller pulled in behind.

Within a few seconds, Bolinger exited his car and began walking toward the driver’s side of Miller’s patrol car. Miller drew her gun and fatally shot Bolinger through her window.

In a deposition taken as part of the civil lawsuit, Miller said that when she saw Bolinger, who was unarmed, walking toward her, she instantly "knew" that he had a gun and intended to shoot her.

"When you wait, it's too late," she said. "You don't wait to find out if they're going to kill you first.”

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Brett Beattie, the attorney representing Bolinger's family, filed a complaint against the city in district court in November 2015. It claimed Bolinger exited his car "in a manner that demonstrated his hands would have been visible" and he wasn't holding a weapon that could threaten human life.

In court filings, the Bolingers’ attorneys alleged an eyewitness had given a sworn statement indicating Bolinger's "hands were raised near chest level as he approached" Miller’s car.

Miller said in her deposition that she couldn't see Bolinger's hands, but they were not raised.

Miller said she shot Bolinger as he walked toward her “with a very purposeful stare.”

“I truly, 100 percent believed he had true intent to hurt me," Miller stated in her deposition. "With the way that he came at me and the look that he had on his face, there was nothing else that he was going to do — other than my initial instantaneous thought, ‘He’s going to shoot me.’"

Bolinger was originally from St. Joseph, Missouri. He had been living in the Des Moines area for two years. He had a fiancee and two children at the time of the shooting. A third child was born three months after his death.

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Bolinger's family declined to comment on the settlement Friday through an attorney.

After resigning from the police department, Miller was hired to work as a general law enforcement instructor at the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy, which provides training for Iowa’s police officers. She left the academy on Sept. 29 of this year, according to state officials.

The Des Moines City Council is expected to approve the settlement agreement during Monday's council meeting.