Police Officer Sued for Shooting Dead an Unarmed Man in a Mental Health Crisis

Suburban Houston police department has a history of excessive violence

LEAGUE CITY, TX – The family of Matthew Krupar sued this city and one of its police officers in federal court today over the officer’s December 2019 shooting death of Krupar caught on a neighbor’s security camera [2] [3].

Krupar, 31, was unarmed in front of his home and had not committed a crime, and yet within minutes of arriving on the scene, League City Officer Patrick Bradshaw shot him dead with four bullets.

According to today’s suit,

“Matthew Krupar was suffering from a mental health issue that did not deserve the implementation of a death sentence by an armed government officer….

“Tragically, the shooting of an unarmed citizen by a member of the League City Police Department was not an isolated incident. League City police killed four citizens (including a high school student) in less than two years before Matt Krupar was killed—a number that is totally disproportionate and unreasonable given the size of the department and the League City population.”

As with Krupar, most of those citizens were unarmed, and none of the officers who killed them were disciplined for the killings or other excessive violence.

On December 11, 2019, Officer Bradshaw responded to a call from Krupar’s home located on Turner Fields Lane in League City. When Bradshaw arrived, Krupar came out of his house, unarmed, presenting no serious threat of harm to the officer or anyone else. Bradshaw later falsely reported that he was “in a life and death struggle” with Krupar and thus had to kill him, an account belied by footage obtained from a neighbor’s security camera.

The League City Police Department made a desperate search to find evidence to corroborate Bradshaw’s story, but came up empty. After putting him on a short administrative leave at full pay, it put him back on full duty, armed.

Untrained police exacerbating mental health crises by aggressive responses is a recurrent national problem. “People with untreated mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed during a police encounter than other civilians approached or stopped by law enforcement,” according to a December 2015 report by the Treatment Advocacy Center

Matthew Krupar is survived by his parents, a sister, and two nieces with whom he was very close. Matthew co-started the family business with his dad. As they worked together, they planned that Matt would eventually take over the business as his dad retired.

The Krupar family is represented by Dax F. Garza and Zane P. Aubert of Dax F. Garza, P.C. and Mark Reyes of Loevy & Loevy Attorneys at Law. Dax F. Garza is a Houston-based personal injury attorney Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Chicago-based Loevy & Loevy is one of the nation’s largest civil rights law firms and has won more multi-million-dollar jury verdicts than any other civil rights law firm in the country. A copy of the suit, Estate of Matthew Krupar, by and through administrator,Joe Krupar, v. Patrick Bradshaw and the City of League City, Case No. 4:21-cv-00933, can be found here.

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