FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The woman who was shot in the face with a rubber bullet during a protest back in 2020 has settled her lawsuit with the city of Fort Lauderdale. However, commissioners had to approve it first.
LaToya Ratlieff took a rubber bullet to the right eye, fracturing the socket.
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“It was not something that was of my own doing,” Ratlieff said in February 2021. “Everything that happened was filmed, so I felt like an apology was long overdue.”
It was a year before Ratlieff received an apology from one commissioner, and one more year after that, she took the city to federal court.
“Unfortunately there’s vision loss and there’s day to day issues that don’t go away and may not ever go away and I think I learned to adjust,” Ratlieff said Tuesday.
Her civil rights lawsuit was scheduled to end Tuesday night, four and a half years later, in a negotiated settlement of almost $2 million — if city commissioners sign off on it.
“It’s just a business decision,” Mayor Dean Trantalis said Tuesday.
Commissioners did sign off, voting unanimously to approve the settlement.
Fort Lauderdale’s mayor was disheartened by the lawsuit, having made the changes to the city’s police practices and protocols that Ratlieff had asked for.
The changes were her mission and the reason she was out protesting in the wake of George Floyd’s murder back then.
“We removed the police chief, we changed the rules of engagement, we had sensitivity training sessions with our officers — all the things she asked us to do, we did,” Trantalis said.
Commissioners discussed the settlement Tuesday evening before voting.
“I really, really hope that this is a new day and a new time where people can continue or start to feel safe in their community again,” said Ratlieff.