The City of Raleigh settled out of court for nearly $1 million after the family of Darryl "Tyree" Williams sued the Raleigh Police Department nearly two years ago.
The city will pay $975,000 to Sonya Williams, who oversees her son's estate, as part of a Dec. 1 settlement agreement signed by the Raleigh City Attorney's Office. "Tyree" Williams was tased repeatedly before dying in police custody on January 17, 2023.
Local civil rights group Emancipate NC represented Sonya Williams and previously sued the city, the four officers involved and former Police Chief Estella Patterson in 2024, seeking $25 million in damages — the most ever sought in a Raleigh custody death — with the support and legal counsel from prolific civil rights attorney Ben Crump and attorney Kenneth Abbarno.
The settlement agreement, signed on Dec. 1, states that the city and and the officers involved in Williams' death deny all alleged wrongdoing.
Sonya Williams previously told WUNC that the lawsuit was her hope for justice in her son's death, which she exclusively attributed to the police officers' accused excessive force. She said that included using a Taser on Williams, even while handcuffed, while attempting to detain him for alleged drug possession.
The case was unique: there weren't any guns fired, Williams was unarmed, and officers were never attacked or harmed. Police body cameras captured everything, including his screams and pleas for officers to stop tasing him.
A video summary of the body-worn camera footage of the incident was uploaded to the Raleigh Police Department's YouTube account weeks after the in-custody death.
"He told them, 'I got heart problems,' and then they tased him again," Sonya Williams said in a 2024 interview. "That's ... that's murder."
The settlement amount is among the highest paid by Raleigh in the death of a person in police custody. The highest amount paid was $1.25 million to family of Soheil Mojarrad, a man with mental health issues who was killed by a Raleigh police officer in 2019.
The city will pay the settlement through its self-insured program and additional money will be paid through its excess insurance carries, city attorney Karen McDonald said in an statement to WUNC.
In the months after Williams' death, Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman ruled that the officers' actions did not violate state law, and that she would not file charges against them.
What happened in Darryl Williams' death
Two white police officers approached Williams on Jan. 17, 2023 when he was parked in his car with another man just after 1 a.m. outside of businesses on Rock Quarry Road in Southeast Raleigh.
Police weren't looking for him. The encounter happened under the pretext of police conducting "proactive patrols," which assigns more officers to high-crime areas.
Police reportedly observed an open container of alcohol and marijuana inside, and detained both men to search them. They accused Darryl of possessing drugs after recovering a folded dollar bill in his pocket with an unidentified substance on it.
Williams ran away from officers before falling and struggling with the officers and two more who arrived.
They tased him during a brief chase and then tased him again while he was pinned to the ground and saying he had heart problems. By the time he was in handcuffs at around 2 a.m., he was no longer breathing and died at a hospital shortly afterwards.
They used Taser stun guns on him at least three separate times, police said previously, though the lawsuit claimed he was tased six separate times.
The N.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner classified his death as a homicide in an autopsy, in part due to "conducted energy weapon use." Homicide as a medical term indicates death as a result of the action of another person, but is not the same as a criminal homicide.
"I can’t get no closure, until I get some justification," Sonya Williams previously told WUNC. "My son’s life meant more than any amount of money that I could get."
