Arlington agrees to pay $1.9 million to family of man shot and killed by police in 2017

The Arlington City Council agreed Tuesday night to pay $1.9 million to the family of a man shot and killed by police in 2017, settling a lawsuit that was taken by pretrial appeals all the way to the Supreme Court.

The family of Tavis Crane sued the city after Crane was fatally shot by Craig Roper, an Arlington police officer. Roper was cleared by a grand jury of criminal wrongdoing but was still open to civil action.

The family did not speak at the council meeting, according to video. One man who did speak told the council that “$1.9 million is not enough for an Arlington resident’s life,” and that he thinks Roper should be stripped of the city’s Medal of Valor he won in 2018 and fired from his job.

Attorneys for Roper tried to knock down the lawsuit under qualified immunity, a federal legal principle that in some instances protects some government officials, like police, from lawsuits resulting from actions performed in an official capacity.

The Supreme Court ruled in November that Roper could not use qualified immunity to avoid civil litigation brought by Crane’s family.

The council’s resolution lays out the payments:

• $784,000 paid to MetLife as a premium for an annuity to be paid to eight children;

• $96,641.48 to Crane’s mother;

• $96,641.48 to Crane’s father;

• $926,717.04 to the Washington Law Firm, which represented Crane’s family in the suit.

The settlement is for both the city and Roper, according to the city’s resolution. In response to a question by a speaker at the council meeting Tuesday, the city said the money will come from the police department’s budget.

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The city said in an emailed statement to the Star-Telegram that it denies “liability for the civil rights claims alleged in the lawsuit but believes this settlement is in the best interest of all parties in the case.”

It also said in the statement that the money will be paid initially from the city’s insurance and risk management program fund but that the money will be reimbursed to the city through funds the department didn’t spend from previous years’ budgets.

Daryl Washington, the attorney representing Crane’s family, did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

The incident began on Feb. 1, 2017, when another officer, Cpl. Elise Bowden, said she saw an object tossed out of Crane’s car that she thought might be a drug pipe, and she pulled Crane over, according to court documents. It turned out that the object was part of a plastic Christmas candy cane that Crane’s 2-year-old daughter threw out the car window. Bowden called for backup during the traffic stop, and Roper was one of the officers who responded.

Crane’s family has said that during the traffic stop, Roper put Crane in a headlock and shot him, causing the car to move and hit Bowden.

“Craig Roper was the judge, the jury and the executioner on that night with my son in a chokehold,” Dee Crane, Tavis’ mother, told KTVT-TV in September. “He murdered my son.”

Police at the time said Tavis Crane had warrants out for his arrest that officers discovered when they ran a check during the traffic stop, and that he ran over Bowden while trying to flee.

The warrants were later revealed to be for misdemeanors.

“The officers should have written him out a ticket, sent him on his way and let him live to see another day,” Dee Crane told KTVT in September.

Video of the shooting

Police said Tavis Crane refused to get out of his vehicle multiple times when asked to do so by Bowden before twice running over her. Roper was partially in the car before it started moving, then got all the way in and shot Crane, police said at the time.

Bowden suffered multiple injuries, including broken bones, and was hospitalized for several days.

Lee Merritt, at one point an attorney for the Crane family, obtained a dashcam video in 2017 after he said witness accounts disagreed with what police said happened.

Witnesses who were in the car with Crane said that Roper put Crane in a chokehold and that when Crane reached for the keys to turn off the car as ordered, Roper shot him, causing the car to accelerate and hit Bowden.

Roper has said that Crane “shifted the car in gear while the two struggled, and that it was only after the car ran over Bowden and after Roper warned Crane that he would kill him if Crane did not stop the car that Roper shot Crane twice,” according to the court documents. “Roper claims that the first two shots ‘did not cause Crane to stop the vehicle, [so] he fired two other shots.’”

The court ruled the video was inconclusive.

“What happened inside Crane’s car is not visible in the dashcam video,” the ruling reads. “As such, the video does not resolve the relevant factual disputes. It is not clear from the video when Roper shot Crane, when Crane became unconscious, whether the car moved before or after Roper shot Crane, and whether Roper had his arm around Crane’s neck or was grabbing Crane’s sweatshirt.”

The video shows Bowden, Roper and another officer approach Crane’s car after finding warrants for a probation violation and multiple misdemeanors out of Dallas County. Before Roper arrived, Bowden informed the other officer that “the passengers had been cooperative and that she wasn’t sure if Crane even knew he had a warrant out,” according to court documents. Two other adults and the child were also in the car.

Bowden, on the dashcam video, asks Crane to step out of the car. Crane says, “I’m not stepping out, because I didn’t do anything wrong.”

After some back-and-forth conversation, Bowden says, “You have a warrant and you need to step out.”

“I have to take my baby home now,” Crane responds. “I’m not stepping out.”

Bowden responds: “Tavis, if you go and do something stupid, then we’re going to be breaking windows — it’s going to get crazy. It ain’t worth it. Look at me. I’m talking to you like a mother, OK? You’re a father. Open the door, baby.”

One officer then opens the back driver’s side door of the car, while another points a flashlight in the front passenger’s window.

“Put your hands on the dashboard,” an officer yells.

“Open the door!” Bowden shouts. “I told you you don’t want to do this. Open the door. Open the door now.”

At that point, the officer who had opened the back driver’s side door — and who, based on the police account, was presumably Roper — appears to be partially inside the car.

After more yelling from Bowden, telling Crane, “Don’t do it!” Crane’s car revs up and moves forward slightly. Bowden then moves behind the car, which rams backward, knocking her to the ground. The car crashes into a patrol car before pulling forward, running over Bowden again.

“Oh my God!” Bowden screams repeatedly. “I’ve been run over twice!”

At some point, Roper shot Crane, though it was unclear from the dashcam video exactly when. The vehicle moved away with Roper still in the car, and an officer in a second patrol car followed, according to that officer’s dashcam video.

Crane’s car only went a short distance down the road. When the second officer arrived, Roper was standing outside the car.

Roper and the second officer pulled Crane from the car and performed CPR as a woman in the car cried. Crane was taken to Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

This story contains information from the Star-Telegram’s archives.