The family of Danquirs Franklin, 27, won $1.5 in a lawsuit against the city of Charlotte and the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department in a settlement. Danquirs was shot and killed by Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department Officer Wende Kerl at a Burger King on Beatties Ford Road Charlotte, NC.
Danquirs had first entered the Burger King on March 19, 2019 to confront his ex-girlfriend over relationship issues. Things got out of hand quickly as Danquirs quickly pulls out a gun and begins destroying the restaurant and assaulting Burger King employees.
Police were called and Officer Kerl along with another officer arrive on scene.
Both cops told Danquirs to drop the gun. Danquirs was calmed down and knelling praying with a pastoral friend by the time police arrived.
Danquirs can be heard saying, “You told me to drop” Danquirs then freezes in his words as his body shuts down from the gunshots, Danquirs died on the scene.
Officer Kerl is heard on video saying, “she had no choice, she had to shoot Danquirs.”
But the video shows Officer Kerl did have a choice. Officer Kerl was the only officer to fire her weapon, surprisingly the other white male police officer on scene chose not to fire his weapon.
Moments after the shooting, one officer is heard yelling, “Stay the fuck off the radio”
The family of Danquirs then filed a lawsuit against the city of Charlotte and the police department, the case was moved to federal court, where civil rights cases are often dismissed by far right wing judges.
In fact, federal judge Graham Mullen appointed by republican president George Bush decided to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Danquirs’s family.
Attorneys for the family then filed an appeal. The appeals court overturned the primarily right wing federal court’s decision, and the lawsuit was put back into court for trial.
The police department did not want a court battle and then made the decision to settle with Danquirs’s family for $1.5 million in July 2023.
