49 SHARES Share Tweet

West Virginia Police Officer Alleges He Was Fired For Not Shooting A Black Man, Sues the Weirton Police Department and Settled in February for $175,000

A white police officer in Weirton, West Virginia was fired after deciding not to shoot a suspect who was a Black man. Stephen Mader has filed and won a federal lawsuit against Weirton Police Department for wrongful termination.

The rookie officer and Marine vet who has served in Afghanistan responded to a domestic dispute in Weirton, West Virginia on the midnight of May 2016. He encountered R.J Williams, the ex-boyfriend of the 911-caller. Williams was drunk and hiding his hands on his back.

SEE ALSO: Louisiana Prep School Founders Allegedly Falsified College Applications, Doctored Transcripts and Fostered a ‘culture of fear with physical and emotional abuse’

Mader told Williams to show him his hands several times but he refused. When Williams finally showed the officer his hands a gun was resting in his right hand pointed at the ground. There exchange next was quite surprising.

“Put the gun down,” Mader said.

“I can’t do that,” Williams said.

“I don’t want to shoot you, brother,” Mader said. “Put the gun down.”

“Just shoot me,” Williams said repeatedly.

Mader did not shoot Williams who seemed a threat to his life because he was holding a gun in his hands. However, the 25-year-old tries to diffuse the situation.

Then as back up, officers arrived and thought Mader needed some help and Williams still refused to drop the gun and even raised it, was fatally shot by one of the officers.

Later it was discovered the gun was not loaded as what his ex-girlfriend told the 911 dispatcher. She also said Williams was suicidal at the time.

“He said he was going to threaten the police with it just so they would shoot him,” she told the 911 dispatcher.

Then weeks after the shooting, Mader was fired from the department because of his actions in the fatal encounter. He called a “coward” by his colleagues because he decided not to use deadly force on the suspect.

“I was just trying to calm him down,” Mader told ProPublica. “It was really just talking to him like he was a human being—talk to him like a guy who was in a wrong state of mind, like a guy who needed to be calmed down, who needed help.”

“I didn’t want to shoot him,” Mader added. “I don’t want to say this, because it’s really corny, but I was kind of sacrificing my well-being for him. I’m not going to shoot this kid for my well-being. I’m going to wait to see more from him.”

Mader took with help of his attorney’s Maggie Coleman, Tim O’Brien, and the West Virginia American Civil Liberties Union. Mader filed a federal lawsuit against the department in May of 2017. It was settled in February and the city paid him $175,000. However, the department did not acknowledge any mistake.

Mader now living in neighboring New Cumberland, West Virginia with his wife and two sons. Mader can no longer work for the Weirton Police Department and now serves as a military police officer with the state National Guard.

Read more:

Chicago officer captured on video striking a teen

Philadelphia Eagles donate $50,000 to bail out 9 people out of jail for the holidays

Rev. Jesse Jackson calls for justice during funeral of Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr.

Copyright ©2018 The Black Detour All Rights Reserved.