8-year-old son of Black man killed by police in California receive $1.3 million settlement

• In April 2018, Kenneth Ross Jr. was shot and killed in a police confrontation in Gardena, California.
• His killing inspired legislation aimed at establishing a decertification process for officers who violate the law.

The 8-year-old son of a Black man who died in a police confrontation in 2018 will receive a $1.3 million settlement, his attorneys said Wednesday.

Kenneth Ross Jr., a 25-year-old Black man, was shot twice in a police confrontation on April 11, 2018, in Gardena, California, after officers responded to calls of a man firing a weapon in a park.

Michael Robbins, the Gardena Police Officer who shot Ross, "told investigators he believed Ross was reaching for a gun and feared for his life," KNBC reported. Robbins was absolved of all wrongdoing by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office the following year.

The family filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Gardena, and according to reports, the attorney representing Ross's son reached the $1.3 million settlement.

"They are happy to put this matter behind them," attorney Jamon Hicks, who represents Ross's son, told Insider in a phone call. "There's been a lot of attention on this case."

He said that the mother of the 8-year-old child has done everything she could to keep her son from the media as the case developed.

"You can't place a value on a human life," Hicks told Insider. "But considering everything, we do think it's a fair settlement and his son will be financially set moving forward."

The 2018 police shooting sparked protests and later a new police decertification law in California, known as the Kenneth Ross Jr. Police Decertification Act.

Authored by Sens. Steven Bradford and Toni Atkins and signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom in September, the legislation will establish a process of decertification for law enforcement that violates the law.

"No mother should have to live with the kind of pain that I live with every day," Fouzia Almarou, Ross Jr.'s mother, said in a press release at the time. "This Act gives us the ability to decertify cops who kill and abuse our people."

She added: "With this Act, my son's spirit lives on and protects our communities from police who bring harm."

Hicks told KNBC that the city of Gardena did not acknowledge any wrongdoing for the killing of Ross but said he believes the new state law is more important than the settlement.

Ross's parents reached a separate settlement with the city, but the amount is not yet publicly available, according to the KNBC report.

The Gardena Police Department did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.