The family of Jayden Baez, the man shot dead in 2022 by deputies aggressively responding to a shoplifting, will receive a portion of a $1 million settlement made with the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office.
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The settlement, announced by attorneys of both parties in a federal appeals court last month, came even as deputies Ramy Yacoub, who fired the fatal shots, and Scott Koffinas were appealing a lower court’s ruling denying them qualified immunity.
The money will be paid out by the Florida Sheriffs Risk Management Fund, an agreement that “was made in the best interest of all parties involved to settle this civil case,” a sheriff’s office spokesperson said.
Baez, 20, was killed April 2022 as he peeled out of a parking spot outside a Target store near Kissimmee while trying to escape deputies in unmarked vehicles.
He had been awaiting his friends inside, who were shoplifting about $46 in Pokémon cards and pizza. When they got back to Baez’s car, deputies converged and shots rang out seconds later, killing Baez and injuring two others while a third passenger survived unscathed.
The subsequent lawsuit, led by DeLayne Penland of NeJame Law, accused the sheriff’s office of excessive force and then-Sheriff Marcos Lopez of fostering a culture allowing aggressive responses to minor crimes.
The sheriff’s office denied wrongdoing, and the deputies were later cleared by an Osceola County grand jury, though not without sharp criticism by that panel. Lopez was invited to speak before the panel but declined, the grand jury report said.
Speaking with the Orlando Sentinel on Friday, Mark NeJame, who owns the firm, lauded his legal partner and the case’s resolution, saying he was confident in the case had it gone to trial.
“I think we presented a strong enough case that it was wise for a resolution to be reached by the sheriff’s office,” NeJame said.
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Regarding the victims’ reactions, he added, “The three young men who survived were all very grateful and appreciative of our efforts. Jayden’s parents were also extremely thankful, but they lost a son. There’s no amount of money that would ever compensate them.”
In January, U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell issued a stunning rebuke of the sheriff’s deputies pointed to “a series of reckless and unreasonable decisions” he wrote “directly contributed to creating a dangerous situation.”
Those included conflicting orders while Baez’s car was being surveilled, confusion over whether Target wished to prosecute the shoplifters and disputes over who ultimately made the decision to box in Baez’s car.
Surveillance video capturing the shooting, the only video of its kind since the deputies were not wearing body-worn cameras, showed deputies did not turn on their emergency lights until after hitting the car, and the vehicles did not have any agency markings. Altogether, Presnell determined Baez “had less time to react … than the reader will have to finish this sentence.”
Deputies had been training takedown techniques, including the one used against Baez, near the Target store moments before they were dispatched to the scene. In his order denying Yacoub and Koffinas immunity, he added that the Sheriff’s Office was not justified in “diverting an undercover, 28-deputy battalion and helicopter to conduct a simple stop on a parked vehicle containing two petit thieves.”
Presnell’s ruling was being challenged in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals when the case was abruptly dismissed, according to court records.
The ruling echoed many of the criticisms made by the grand jury but also stopped short of accusing Lopez of encouraging excessive force.
Lopez has since been removed as sheriff following his arrest in an unrelated case.
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