The city of Chatsworth, Georgia, has agreed to pay Martha Al-Bishara, the then-87-year-old woman who was shot with a stun gun by police, $150,000 in a settlement.
The settlement also requires every patrol officer in the Chatsworth Police Department to be equipped with body cameras.
The stun gun incident and eventual arrest of Al-Bishara happened in August 2018. Al-Bishara was picking leaves with a steak knife from a field behind the local Boys & Girls Club across the street from her house. Her grandchildren said she wanted to garnish a salad. After a worker at the Boys & Girls Club called 911, reporting a mysterious, knife-wielding woman, Chatsworth Police Chief Josh Etheridge and Officer Steven Marshall found her in the back lot, near a fence.
According to body camera footage released in June by Al-Bishara’s attorney, Jeff Dean, the officers stood only a couple of feet in front of her. They shouted commands. But Al-Bishara, a Syrian immigrant, speaks little English, her grandson said.
“Throw it down!” the officers yelled. “Throw it down! Throw it down! Throw it down! Drop it! Throw it down! Drop the knife! Drop the knife or you’re going to get Tased! Put the knife down! The knife! Drop it! Drop it! Drop it now!”