Spokane man killed by police could receive $250,000 in compensation from city

SPOKANE, Wash. – A Spokane family could reach a $250,000 settlement with the city of Spokane after police shot and killed a man two years ago.

Officers said they believed Peterson Kamo was trying to kill a toddler when they shot him. After Peterson’s death, police reported Kamo had a knife and a toddler in his hands seconds before two officers shot him.

According to SPD, it was difficult for officers to get a clear picture of what happened due to the language barrier with the Kamo family. Peterson was also the only person in the house who could speak fluent English.

Peterson’s family took legal action against the city after his death. If this $250,000 settlement is approved by the Spokane City Council, it will dismiss the Kamo family’s $23 million lawsuit for damages filed two years ago.

This settlement does not mean that the city admits responsibility for Peterson Kamo’s death. But the Kamo family sees it as an admission that what happened should not have happened.

The lawsuit claims that if officers had taken more time to better understand the situation, he would not have been killed. It says Peterson’s brother died about a week before the shooting and the family was grieving. It says Peterson, who was particularly close to his brother, was “grieving and frustrated.”

Speaking before Monday’s council meeting, the Kamo family’s lawyer said losing both of their sons in one month had been an incredible burden and that their decision to settle this case was made out of love, forgiveness and a desire to move on with their lives.

It is not uncommon for large-scale settlements to occur in the city.

In September 2022, Spokane reached its largest settlement of $4.8 million. David Novak’s family accepted the settlement one day before their wrongful death lawsuit went to trial. Spokane police shot Novak in 2019 after neighbors reported she was drunk and firing a gun at their home, but Novak did not have a gun.

In 2023, a Spokane pedestrian accepted $1,137,169.08 in compensation from the city after nearly dying at a crosswalk on Division Street in North Spokane.

In February, a Spokane woman received $275,000 in compensation from the city, claiming she was seriously injured when she slipped into a tree grate downtown.

Through their lawyer, the Kamo family said that no amount of money in the world could replace Peterson.

Kurtis Robinson is a Spokane-based attorney with the Washington Coalition for Police Accountability. He said settlements in a case like this can be a means of accountability, but they also mean a loss of life.

“The only mechanism we have left is a fiscal one,” Robinson said. “When we look at what accountability measures there are in this ‘just us’ community, the value of human life is now expressed in money rather than in its inherent right to be alive.”

He said the coalition encourages the community to advocate for the kind of accountability it wants to see and to elect those who stand for those values.

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