$875K Lawsuit Settlement With Family Of Stavian Rodriguez Heads To Oklahoma City Council

The Oklahoma City Council is set to vote on a proposed lawsuit settlement agreement with the family of 15-year-old Stavian Rodriguez during its meeting on Tuesday. If approved, the settlement would provide $875,000 to Rodriguez's mother.

Rodriguez was shot and killed in Nov. of 2020 during an armed robbery at the Okie Gas & Express store, located in the 7900 block of South Western Avenue in Oklahoma City.

Responding officers gave Rodriguez commands to exit the convenience store. He left through a drive-thru window, which court documents state was the only unlocked exit.

Surveillance video shows Rodriguez exiting through the window, then raising his hands before slowly grabbing and dropping a gun from his waistband.

After dropping the gun, video depicts Rodriguez moving his left hand behind his back. At that time, officers began shooting Rodriguez.

An official autopsy states he was shot 13 times. In the 2021 civil lawsuit filed by Cameo Holland, Rodriguez's mother, her attorney argues the shooting was excessive because he had already dropped his weapon and that his movement was not aggressive.

Her attorney also argued Rodriguez was given conflicting commands and that the police response was disorienting and poorly organized. 

The Fraternal Order of Police has long defended the five officers who fatally shot Rodriguez, despite those officers originally being charged with first-degree manslaughter by then District Attorney David Prater.

Current District Attorney Vicki Behenna reversed that decision in July of 2023, dismissing the charges. Holland referred to that decision as a failure in the justice system.

Separately, Behenna vowed to send all future fatal police shootings to a grand jury.

Shortly after the charges were dismissed, the Oklahoma City Police Department announced in a news conference that the officers would return to duty. The department also stated that in the years between, it had developed new reality-based training to improve de-escalation tactics and had added more less-lethal weapons to its department.

A spokesperson for Oklahoma City declined to comment.

The attorney representing Holland has not yet responded to a request for comment.