$500,000 settlement reached in case of man fatally tackled by Kansas City police officer
A judge approved a $500,000 settlement for the parents of a man who was tackled by a Kansas City police officer and died.
Brian Prince died in October 2017. His parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit the next year.
During an unusually personal hearing Monday morning, Brian’s father Don Prince said the case showed that his son’s life mattered. Jackson County Judge Jalilah Otto became emotional as she agreed, telling him and his wife Carolyn that Brian was loved and loved them.
“It’s a tragic case,” Otto said.
She commended attorneys David Smith and Diane Peters for reaching the settlement. Peters, with the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, represented Kansas City police officer Chris Viesselman. He did not attend the court hearing. Peters hugged the Princes as the hearing concluded.
Don Prince told The Star they filed the case to get answers about what had happened and that the outcome of the case showed that his son’s life mattered.
“The outcome was what he had hoped for, that there would be some responsibility for his death,” he said.
“There’s really never closure as such, but we finally find some peace in knowing that Brian was valued.”
On Sept. 2, 2017, Brian Prince was suspected of trying to steal $523.44 in merchandise from the Walmart Supercenter at 1701 W. 133rd St., just off of State Line Road on the city’s far south side.
Viesselman chased after Prince as he ran for the store’s south exit. Just inside the first doorway, Viesselman grabbed Prince by the waist, whipped him around and to the ground. Prince landed face-first on the tile floor. His left shoe flew several feet. Blood poured from his head almost immediately, according to surveillance video obtained by The Star through a public records request.
The 45 year old spent weeks in the hospital and was on life support. He died Oct. 1, 2017.
His family filed a lawsuit in December 2018 alleging Viesselman used unreasonably excessive force.
“Why did that police officer feel that he needed to throw him head first into the concrete floor and kill him?” Don Prince said during an interview last year. “I don’t get that. I’ll never understand that.”
In February 2020, the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office told the police department that it would not file charges against the officer.
Trial dates in the wrongful death suit were scheduled for July 18 and then Oct. 24, but both were canceled.
The terms of the settlement show Viesselman denies any liability.
Viesselman is a detective in KCPD’s investigations bureau, said Capt. Leslie Foreman, a spokeswoman for the department. KCPD did not comment on the case.
The latest settlement is one of several lawsuits against KCPD that have ended this year in six-figure payouts. The Board of Police Commissioners agreed to pay $900,000 for a wrongful arrest that put a 15-year-old behind bars for three weeks. Another teen was awarded $325,000 after he was punched more than 10 times and tased by three Kansas City police officers. And the department agreed to pay $110,000 to a teenage girl who, along with her father, was pepper sprayed near the Country Club Plaza during a protest against police brutality in 2020.
The Star’s Bill Lukitsch contributed to this story.
