Paradigm Shift in Virginia Beach? $3M #DonovonLynch Settlement Breaks Record
NORFOLK, VA — This week’s $3 million settlement agreement in Virginia Beach regarding the officer involved shooting death of Donovon Lynch was the largest for an officer-involved police shooting. The previous was $1.2 million. Lynch was shot to death on March 26, 2021 by Virginia Beach Police Officer Solomon Simmons III.
This week the Virginia Beach City Council approved a settlement with the Lynch family in the wrongful death lawsuit filed against the city.
AFTER SETTLEMENT PRESSER. At a press conference on Dec. 14, Donovon’s father Wayne Lynch and his attorney Justin Fairfax, spoke with reporters.
“We knew the truth from day one. We knew that Donovon Lynch had nothing to do with the events of that night and nothing to do with his own death,” Fairfax, who served as the 41st Lt. Governor, told reporters.
“Donovon was a father’s dream. He did everything expected of him and more. I’m just sad that he’s not here with me anymore,” Wayne Lynch told reporters standing alongside Fairfax this week in front of the federal courthouse in Norfolk.
Fourteen minutes of the Dec. 14, 2022 press conference can be heard below:
FLOYD. TAYLOR. 🌹 There is no amount of money high enough to replace a person’s life. Because of the activism of Black Lives Matter since the killing of Michael Brown in 2014 in Ferguson, Mo., the question of what can be done about police brutality and excessive use of force has gained national attention. Cites are under more and more pressure to compensate for wrongful deaths at a the hands of police officers. The days of simply assuming police are correct and that matters are “case closed” is over.
Other cases involving officer involved shootings have ranged from less than $1 million to the two highest in the U.S. They are $24 million in the May 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis Police Officer and $12 million for the March 2021 killing of Breonna Taylor by three Louisville Metro Police Officers serving a warrant at the wrong location.
64 DAYS. The settlement agreement in the Donovon Lynch case occurred 64 days after fmr. Lt. Governor Fairfax joined the legal team in Oct. 2022, along with Thomas B. Martin of Martin Law PLLC. Several other officer involved shootings around the nation have received much less. The damage award amounts have sometimes been shocking low.
The size of damage awards is clearly related to the publicity around an officer-involved shooting. Whether the incident was caught on camera can also be a major factor. In the case of Donovon Lynch, the Virginia Beach Police Officer who shot him violated department guidelines and had his body worn camera turned off.
Superstar record producer Pharrell Williams, who is a cousin of Lynch, kept the Donovon’s story alive in the media for about six months. Williams moved his music festival, Something in the Water, out of Virginia Beach for 2022 after Donovon’s killing citing “toxic energy,”
Then then press moved on. But in Oct. 2022, Fairfax, Virginia’s most recent former Lt. Governor who served from Jan. 2018 to Jan. 2022, became the lead attorney in the Lynch case. Two months later the city of Virginia Beach settled.
Aside from the record settlement award a shift can also be seen in the messaging after the settlement. A release by the city posted on their website this week read, in part:
“As we have learned more over time about the facts of that fateful night and encounter, we have come to understand that a series of unfortunate occurrences led to Donovon’s death that night – which in hindsight should never have occurred as it was later determined that neither Donovon nor the officer set in motion the events that transpired.”
The entire statement from Virginia Beach:
Reporter Alex Littlehales asked attorney Justin Fairfax and Wayne Lynch about this on Dec. 14 outside of federal court in Norfolk. Watch:
Fairfax was interviewed by Roland Martin on Roland Martin Unfiltered last night (12-15-22):
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