Stun-gunned elderly woman will get settlement from Chatsworth, Georgia

Jan. 24--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!"

The third officer was about 20 yards away, making it difficult to see what happened in the space around Al-Bishara, Etheridge and Marshall. In his report, Marshall said she took steps toward him. He then deployed his stun gun, striking her in the chest.

Al-Bishara quickly fell, the video shows. Etheridge and Marshall lifted her up as she moaned.

The settlement was made through the city's insurance company, Trident Public Risk. Attorneys for the company had sent Dean only one offer back in June, which he deemed "unsatisfactory," he said.

"They're just paying really the cost of litigation, just to try to make it go away," Dean said at the time. "They didn't really want to compensate her for what she went through."

Dean could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon.

In a statement sent by the Chatsworth Police Department, Chief Etheridge said the department had gone through necessary de-escalation and other training that would have prevented an incident such as this one.

This is a developing story. Stay with the Times Free Press for updates.

Contact Patrick Filbin at pfilbin@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6476. Follow him on Twitter @PatrickFilbin.

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