Updated on Monday, July 29 at 8:46 a.m.
Most Tulsa police officers named in a remarkable settlement for shooting a man to death in 2020 still work for the department.
Eight officers confronted Jonathan Randell on Aug. 8, 2020 as he had a mental health episode outside of a Catholic Charities facility in north Tulsa. They first fired pepper balls at Randell while he harmed himself with a pocket knife, according to police. Then, they shot him when he threw the knife in their direction, even though most of them were behind police cars or riot shields.
The civil rights lawsuit filed after his death says Randell had more than 50 gunshot wounds.
According to records, officers Cody Riley, William Shanks, Tyler Butler, Justin McRee and Branton Miller still work for TPD. Joshua Hyman, Chad Cunningham and Dakota Jones have since left.
Miller was the lone officer who received any discipline stemming from the shooting — he was suspended without pay for 120 hours, or three weeks. Public Radio Tulsa has requested the reason for Miller’s suspension.
When asked about the officers’ employment in light of the settlement, TPD Capt. Richard Meulenberg declined to give an opinion.
“These are just the facts of (the lawsuit),” Meulenberg said. “It is what it is.”
Officers initially responded to Randell after a 911 caller at Catholic Charities said he was climbing their fence. The lawsuit says Randell was trying to visit a friend at the facility who could help him through his mental health episode.
Officers arrived with a Community Outreach Psychiatric Emergency Services (COPES) specialist, but called the specialist back when Randell pulled out the knife, the lawsuit says.
Meulenberg said officers responded to the scene in a way they believed “were appropriate to (Randell’s) actions.”
Detective Pablo Zuniga, who was negotiating with Randell, told supervising Lt. Clay Ballenger that the officers on scene needed to stay where they were to effectively negotiate. Ballenger told Zuniga the officers’ proximity would leave them with only “one option," according to the lawsuit.
But Ballenger also told Zuniga to remind Randell he couldn’t leave because he had a “weak felony warrant.” Randell was charged in 2017 with placing bodily fluids on a government employee in Wagoner County, according to court records.
Randell reportedly became upset after the officers relayed this information to him.
Body camera footage shows one officer shooting at Randell when he throws his knife, ducking behind a police cruiser and then shooting at him again once he's lying on the ground.
“(It’s) a whole legion of officers who are responding in an identical manner,” said attorney Dan Smolen, who represented Randell's family in the case.
A federal judge ordered the city to pay Randell’s estate the $2 million on Monday. City officials could not determine if the $2 million settlement is higher than most payouts, though Smolen said it is.
“I’m not aware of (the city) settling any excessive force cases in that range,” Smolen said, adding that the case “could potentially result in an eight-figure verdict” if it had gone before a jury instead of being settled.
“The family feels that it’s an amount of money that sends a message that it was unconstitutional, unnecessary and cruel type of punishment that their loved one received that day.”
Meulenberg said outgoing Police Chief Wendell Franklin has strengthened relationships with agencies like COPES and Family and Children’s Services. Franklin was chief for less than a year when the officers shot Randell.
“Not to say this was the direct result of this, but obviously, we saw the need," Meulenberg said.
Meulenberg couldn’t say if Randell’s shooting specifically led to a policy change because “policies change all the time” at TPD. But he did say department policies are always reconsidered after a critical incident.
“Certainly, this incident was discussed,” he said.
This story was updated to add sources for claims of self-harm and the number of gunshot wounds sustained by Randell.
