Omaha City Council spends thousands to set charge of racial profiling aside

Exactly 30 days following the suffocation of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer—a murder which sparked Black Lives Matter protests in Omaha and across the country— an Omaha police officer pulled his gun on a black man and set in motion accusations of racial profiling.

Today, 18 months later, the City of Omaha has put a controversial traffic stop and federal lawsuit against Officer Jeffrey Vaughn in the rear-view mirror.

The city council unanimously approving a settlement paying 20-year-old Elijah Kamara and his mother $42,500.

According to the lawsuit, not only did Officer Vaughn have the man and his mom fearing for their lives—facing “deadly force for…five to ten minutes before a second officer arrived”— he also tried to cover it up and was having a good laugh as they were allowed to leave with a warning.

Responding to the lawsuit, with the City of Omaha acting on Vaughn's behalf, the city argues Vaughn did nothing wrong, that he held Kamara at gunpoint because Vaughn was “fearing for his safety.” In addition, when the officer pulled the two over—(Kamara’s mom, Meshelle Settles, was driving—he had no idea what color they were.

Settles and Kamara say while Vaughn initially gave them no reason for the stop, he eventually said she had been “driving in the left lane for too long.” The citation says she was “following too closely.”

As for the cover-up, the citation says Settles is “white.” Settles lawsuit says Vaughn deliberately falsified the race identifier in order to sidestep the Omaha Police Department's ability to analyze possible profiling.

OPD’s Internal Affairs unit investigated but said the complaint was “not sustained,” according to Kamara and his mom.