The Denver City Council on Monday approved six settlements totaling $1 million for three lawsuits brought by people who sued in federal court over the law enforcement response to the 2020 George Floyd protests.

More than $900,000 will go to a group of four protesters, who filed the first lawsuit over the city’s response to protests in the summer of 2020 over the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. The protesters alleged Denver police gassed them without warning, shot at them with pepper balls and hit one of them in the head with a 40 mm launcher (though he wore a helmet at the time). 

Out of the protesters who sued, Amy Schneider will receive $350,000; Michael McDaniel, $100,000; Agazi Abay, $235,000; and, Gabriel Thorn, $320,000.

One day after the lawsuit was filed in June 2020, Senior Judge R. Brooke Jackson prohibited officers in Denver, or from any other agency working with the city, from using chemical weapons or “less-lethal” projectile weapons through a temporary restraining order, unless supervisors on scene authorized their use in response to personally witnessing specific acts of violence or destruction.

Jackson’s order at the time also put limitations on the manner in which police could use the weapons, such as barring them from aiming at people’s heads, pelvises or backs, firing indiscriminately into crowds and requiring orders to disperse before firing chemical weapons.

Attorney Elizabeth Wang, whose firm Loevy & Loevy represented Schneider, Thorn and Abay, said she is pleased to see the case come to a resolution. She added some of the systemic changes to policing practices plaintiffs hoped to see by bringing the lawsuit were adopted in Jackson’s injunction and legislation passed by Colorado’s General Assembly in June 2020.

The law, colloquially known by its designation Senate Bill 217, codified limitations on the use of less-lethal weapons by law enforcement and requires officers to have body-worn cameras turned on during interactions with the public in most circumstances.

“What we hope is that the changes that DPD has made, the officers will take them seriously all the way down the line,” Wang said.

Denver has defended the behavior of its police officers during the George Floyd protests. Leaders in the police department have said the demonstrations were volatile and rapidly unfolding. Some people destroyed property – including vandalism to the Capitol building – and threw things at officers, the city said. 

A representative from the City Attorney’s Office declined comment Monday. 

The city council is also scheduled to approve $50,000 settlements each for cases brought by Lindsay Minter and Terrance Roberts, a longtime Denver organizer and former mayoral candidate. Roberts alleged police pepper-sprayed him in the face during a counter-protest against a rally for then-President Donald Trump in July 2020 in Civic Center Park. He brought his case against the city and then-Police Chief Paul Pazen.

Minter’s case alleged that, one night after she led a protest in May 2020, police threw a stinger ball grenade at her and hit her in the face. A stringer ball grenade generates a loud noise and bright light, as well as dispersing a chemical irritant.

She sued Denver, Pazen, retired Cmdr. Patrick Phelan and several others. Phelan served as the incident commander for the George Floyd protests.

The settlements come a few weeks after the council agreed to pay $4.72 million to settle claims of constitutional violations by people who were arrested for violating an emergency curfew put in place during the George Floyd protests but faced no other violations.