The Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners has reached a settlement to pay $900,000 for a wrongful arrest from almost six years ago that put a then 15-year-old in jail for three weeks, according to The Kansas City Star. Tyree Bell will be awarded the sum for damages and court costs. The family filed the Kansas City officers involved in his wrongful arrest and police department leadership in 2017, claiming the Black teen’s civil rights were violated by cops who misidentified him and failed to review exonerating evidence. Sgt. Jake Becchina, a spokesman for the Kansas City Police Department, confirmed details of the settlement in a statement to The Star. Under the agreement Bell will be awarded $442,000 in compensatory damages and his attorney would receive $458,000 for legal fees.

Becchina says the department has “always sought a successful resolution for all parties” since the lawsuit was filed. “Through the legal process the officers involved made it known they would like to meet with Mr. Bell and apologize,” Becchina said, adding: “We are glad we reached a mutual resolution and we wish Mr. Bell and his family all the best.”

According to the Kansas City Star:

On June 8, 2016, Kansas City police were alerted to suspicious activity after a 911 caller reported three Black teenagers were outside of a residence showing off a gun to a group of teenage girls. Responding to the scene were officers Jonathan Munyan and Peter Neukirch. After they pulled up in a marked patrol car, they saw three people described over dispatch radio. The teens ran when the emergency lights were switched on. Two suspects were arrested near the scene. The third ran from police and was seen tossing a gun that struck a fence on James Reed Road. Neukirch radioed in a description of the third suspect. Roughly a mile away, Bell was walking along 87th Street near a McDonald’s restaurant after he had returned home from summer school. He was detained by another Kansas City police officer based on the belief that he matched the description of the third suspect. Bell was transported to 91st and Marsh, where Munyan and Neukirch positively identified Bell as the teenager who ran, according to court records. But lawyers for Bell have contended that police neglected to check their own dash camera videos or ask other witnesses about Bell which could have immediately exonerated him.

Bell then spent the next three weeks in the Jackson County Juvenile Detention Center. He long maintained his innocence and Kansas City police were contacted by his mother several times with requests to review the evidence against her son. A detective eventually looked at the dash camera video and discovered the mistake, recommending to a local prosecutor that the charges against Bell be dismissed. Bell was released from the facility on June 29, 2016, as the charges were dropped. In the resulting civil case, the Bell family argued that the teen’s Fourth Amendment right protecting him from unlawful arrest was violated. They also contend police failed to acknowledge that Bell’s hairstyle and clothing were different from the suspect’s. In an interview with The Star shortly after the lawsuit was filed, Bell’s mother Sherri James said she had frequent panic attacks while her son was in jail. “Knowing that your son is in a cell for something he didn’t do? It was horrible.”

Bell says since the incident his attitude toward police has changed, “Every time I see a police officer or a police car, I feel like I’m in trouble. I don’t know how to really explain it, it’s just a feeling that I get. The police, I felt like they were there to comfort and support. “I don’t feel that anymore.”

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