Seattle resident Nathaniel Caylor wears a large, conspicuous metal appliance on the right side of his face, a souvenir of a May 5, 2009 incident in which Seattle Police Officer Eugene Shubeck tried to murder him in front of his twenty-month-old son, Wyatt. The police had arrived in response to a third-party report that Caylor, distraught over the death of his wife, was suicidal.

Following seventeen surgeries – which included bone grafts and the insertion of metal screws and plates to hold together his shattered face – Caylor was offered $1.975 million by the City of Seattle to settle his federal lawsuit. This is believed to be the largest tax victim-supported settlement arising from police misconduct in the history of Seattle, and it prompted the predictable, petulant reaction from the local police union.

"The settlement by the City of Seattle in this case sends a disturbing message to the rank and file of the Seattle Police Department," pouted Seattle Police Officers Guild President Ron Smith. For the public supposedly served by the local police, the more "disturbing" message is found in the fact that Shubeck remains on the Seattle PD payroll. His impregnable cloak of "qualified immunity" protects him from personal liability, and the unqualified support of the police union provides him with unassailable job security.

As punishment for being on the receiving end of Shubeck's homicide attempt, Caylor was charged with "felony harassment." At the same time, Caylor was dealing with the seizure of his son by Child Protective Services on the basis of a perjured report by Detective Jeffrey Mudd, who falsely claimed that Caylor had used his son as a "human shield" and had threatened to kill the child.

Schubeck (l.) with patrol partner Bryan Bright.

At the time he pulled the trigger, Schubeck "had observed Mr. Caylor and his son on the balcony, and observed that the boy was in no distress," wrote U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones in a May 22, 2013 ruling. 

Drawing on the record of stipulated facts, Judge Jones underscored several other important things that a "reasonable officer" would have known, among which are the following:

*"At no point did Mr. Caylor threaten to harm his son," but he did express concern "that if the officers forced entry to his apartment, they would hurt his son";

* "Mr. Caylor's son exhibited no signs of distress when Ofc. Schubeck observed him on the balcony," and "officers heard no indications of distress from the boy when he and Mr. Caylor were inside the apartment";

* "Mr. Caylor did not display a weapon or threaten to use a weapon";

* "Mr. Caylor did not suggest he was attempting `suicide by cop' – instead, he asked Ofc. Schubeck if he was going to shoot him and justify the shooting as `suicide by cop'."