A West Virginia cop who was fired for not shooting a suspect has received compensation for wrongful termination according to CNN.

In May 2016, former Weirton Police Department officer Stephen Mader responded to a domestic violence dispute. Mader said then-suspect 23-year-old Ronald “R.J.” Williams was “visibly choked up” and asked the officer to shoot him.

When backup officers arrived, Williams reportedly began lifting an unloaded gun. One of the cops shot and killed the young man. An investigation into the shooting claimed the unidentified officer had justifiable reason to kill Williams.

But Mader said Williams posed no immediate threat to him and he saw no reason to shoot Williams at the time. Cops claim the incident wasn’t solely responsible for his termination but was the outcome of several instances of “failure to meet probationary standards of an officer” and “apparent difficulties in critical incident reasoning” according to a lawsuit filed last May.

Mader was awarded $175,000 by the West Virginia city.

“At the end of the day, I’m happy to put this chapter of my life to bed,” Mader said in a news release by the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia.
“The events leading to my termination were unjustified and I’m pleased a joint resolution has been met. My hope is that no other person on either end of a police call has to go through this again.”

Read the full report here: