Milton Hall's mother, Jewel Hall, speaks at the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Saginaw

Jewel Hall, mother of Milton Hall, stands up at the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Saginaw on Saturday, Sept. 15, 2012.

SAGINAW, MI — The mother of Milton Hall, a homeless Saginaw man shot and killed by Saginaw police officers in 2012, has settled her federal wrongful death lawsuit against the city and nine police officers, her attorneys say.

Jewel Hall on Friday, March 14, settled her case in U.S. District Court in Bay City, according to a press release sent from Hall's Detroit attorneys.

Hall settled the case for $725,000, according to her Saginaw attorney, Debra Freid.

Hall's "primary motivation was to make sure that this never happens to another family," Freid told The Saginaw News.

The dollar amount is a "symbol of (Milton Hall's) value," Freid said.

"The amount was never the central issue for Jewel," Freid said. "The fact that it's a very substantial amount is important to her because (it means) the city of Saginaw recognizes that Milton Hall, her son, was a person of value notwithstanding his illness."

Saginaw City Manager Tim Morales told The Saginaw News that the city has not officially accepted the settlement.

Morales said he knows that attorneys representing the city have been working toward a resolution on the lawsuit but that the details of a proposed settlement likely won’t be considered by City Council until its next meeting, which is set for April 7.

Detroit attorney Hugh "Buck" Davis in September filed the complaint on behalf of Hall seeking "full and fair compensation" as well as punitive damages.

Saginaw County Prosecutor Michael D. Thomas holds the knife Milton Hall used to threaten police while making a point during a press conference he held regarding the Hall shooting. Thomas cleared Saginaw Police officers of criminal charges in the July 1, 2012 shooting of Milton Hall.

Six Saginaw police officers fired 47 times at the 49-year-old Hall, striking him 11 times, in the Riverview Plaza parking lot on West Genesee as he wielded a knife and acted aggressively, according to then-Saginaw County Prosecutor Michael D. Thomas.

After review of the incident, Thomas determined that there was no criminal intent behind the officers' actions and noted that Hall was in possession of a knife. The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan recently asked the U.S. Department of Justice to reconsider its decision to not prosecute the officers.

As Davis did in the lawsuit, Monday's press release labeled the officers' actions as a “horrifying 'firing squad' execution.”

Hall's death also drew widespread criticism, attracting national attention and civil rights leaders Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton to Saginaw for visits. Citizens banded together to bring attention to the case and put pressure on the Saginaw Police Department and city leaders to make changes in the wake of the killing.

The press release notes that the city, "to its credit, ... has admitted that its officers lacked sufficient training, particularly in how to deal with mentally distressed people.” It also includes a statement from Hall chastising city leaders.

“The Saginaw Police Department needs a police chief who is a compassionate professional and a leader who is engaged,” the statement began. “Saginaw's police chief must have leadership skills that are engaged at many different levels and use them immediately. (The most important of those skills is at) the community level with abilities to be proactive in addressing the entire community's needs.”

Saginaw Police Chief Brian Lipe was the assistant chief at the time of Hall's death. He was promoted to acting chief after Chief Gerald Cliff took another job days after Hall's death. City officials removed the "acting" portion of his title in May.

The Hall family also urged the police department to implement:

“They need to immediately organize town hall community conversations aimed at developing 'bottom up' solutions struggling communities,” the statement continued. “They must eliminate the many exclusionary acts sustained by insensitive power holders and work with community groups to define a good system available to all.

“Anything less would amount to silently condoning the way some officers within the Saginaw Police Department appear to believe that killing my son Milton Hall is not only justifiable, but is even commendable.”

The press release states that Hall's attorneys had “nationally recognized police practices experts, Ernest Burwell of Thompson Falls, Mont., and Roger Clark of San Diego, Calif.,” who “indicated that (the Hall shooting) was the worst-handled standoff with an essentially unarmed man who had mental problems and had committed no serious crime that they had ever seen.”

Hall's lawsuit named the city as a defendant but also then-Sgt. A.J. Wojciechowski, the supervising officer at the scene, as well as Officers Patrick Busch, Jeremy Holden, Bradley Holp, Nicholas Olivo, Roger Pate, Richard Thompson and Jeffrey Wenzell. The lawsuit also named Lt. Paul Crane, who was the shift commander and did not physically respond to the scene.

In a video from a camera mounted in a Saginaw police car, officers approach Milton Hall with their weapons drawn.

The incident began when Hall stole a cup of coffee from a nearby gas station. Davis wrote in the complaint that the officers “knew or should have known” of Hall's disability because he was “well known” by Saginaw police officers.

Davis wrote that Wojciechowski, also known as A.J. Tuer, said Hall was not “looking so nice,” requested assistance and stated “without provocation or reason, that if the other officers did not respond promptly, she was “going to have to shoot this guy.”

The officers named in the complaint then “immediately surrounded Hall with their weapons drawn and aimed at him,” Davis wrote. Wenzell, the attorney continues, “repeatedly and aggressively taunted and threatened Hall with a police dog, which frightened and agitated him further.”

Hall, Davis wrote, called 911 and requested a police supervisor be dispatched to the parking lot because he was surrounded and was defending himself with a pocket knife.

Then-Prosecutor Thomas noted Hall's knife as well as the fact that he took four or five steps toward Wenzell and his K9. The officers fired after that, Thomas said.

Davis in the press release stated that Hall's actions did not justify the shooting.

“They killed a man,” Davis stated, “to protect a dog that should not have been there and was not in danger.”

— Andy Hoag covers courts for MLive/The Saginaw News. Email him at ahoag@mlive.com or f

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