Silliman filed a lawsuit for the wrongful death of her son in 2016. The Washington Post called his death an “inexcusable drug war casualty” and Mother Jones wrote about the raid in an article highlighting the dangers of militarized policing. News of Westcott’s 2014 killing spread around the country. The city added that in the months following the shooting, a new standard was created on how and when to use its SWAT team. “This settlement brings finality to seven years of litigation, and we hope it provides some measure of closure and healing to Ms. The officers involved believed the gun was pointed at or coming in their direction, and that was the reason the officers had to make the extremely difficult decision to use deadly force,” the city’s communications team wrote in an email this week.

“Westcott was holding a firearm during the incident. In a statement on Castor’s behalf, the city said the use of force was justified and reasonable. Investigating officers told Westcott that if anyone broke into his house that he should grab his gun and “shoot to kill.” In depositions, SWAT team members said that they weren’t aware of the previous conversations that detectives had with Westcott. Months before the raid, Westcott had called Tampa police when he discovered that a man who had visited his house at a party was plotting to rob him for his electronics and his gun. But he often lied out of fear that he would lose his job for not producing enough cases for the cops, he told the Tampa Bay Times in 2014. Informant Ronnie Coogle was paid by Tampa police to incriminate Westcott and other alleged drug dealers. He was a motorcycle mechanic and good with tools, so he became the handyman on his block, previous Times reporting found. Neighbors were shocked by the death, and remembered Westcott, 29 at the time he died, as a kind person who would spend hours talking about life with his neighbors. Inside, they found 0.2 grams of weed - the equivalent of about $2 worth of the drug at the time.

Police had obtained a warrant to break into Westcott’s house based on the false intel that he was a drug dealer holding a pound of marijuana. Minutes later, Westcott was dead, his body riddled with shotgun and pistol bullets. On the evening of May 27, 2014, a Tampa police SWAT team arrived at Westcott’s house near Lowry Park Zoo with a BearCat armored vehicle, a tactical response trailer and officers wearing body armor.Īcting on false information from an unreliable informant, the cops broke into Westcott’s house while he and his boyfriend were sleeping. “But with the settlement and policy they created after the shooting, it’s like the police are admitting what they did wrong.” “I don’t believe the police department has ever been held fully accountable for what they did to my son,” Silliman, 56, said.

Life happened country song