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Phoenix pays $5M after 19-year-old was misidentified by police, shot with rubber bullet

The teenager was shot with a rubber bullet in January 2020 after police officers misidentified him for someone else.

PHOENIX — The Phoenix City Council has approved paying out $5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a young man who was shot with a rubber bullet in 2020 after law enforcement officials misidentified him.

Dion Humphrey filed legal action against the city a few months after he was injured during an incident with police officers on Jan. 10, 2020.

Phoenix police said at the time that they were looking for Dion's older brother in relation to a robbery investigation and mistook the 19-year-old for his brother.

Humphrey was hit by a rubber bullet and taken to the police station for questioning. He was later released.

Humphrey's family said the young man had to be hospitalized due to injuries sustained from the rubber bullet. 

"The pain that I have…right here is burning," Humphrey said shortly after the incident. "And it’s hard for me to breathe."

At the time, Phoenix police acknowledged it had mistook Humphrey for someone else.

On Wednesday, the city council approved paying a settlement to resolve Humphrey's civil lawsuit. The council recently agreed to pay over $5 million to resolve another lawsuit filed by the family of a man fatally shot by police last year.

*Editor's Note: The above video is from an earlier broadcast*   

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