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After settlement reached, family of Marcus Golden blasts St. Paul for 'lying' about case
The mother of Marcus Golden had some stiff words for the St. Paul Police Department -- the department she volunteered with -- about how they handled the shooting death of her son, accusing the department of lying about the case.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - Marcus Golden’s mother is opening up about the deadly Saint Paul Police shooting that claimed the life of her son eight years ago.
"He should be here today, living the best life he could live. He should be here for my birthday tomorrow. But he won’t be. My son was murdered," said Ericka Cullars-Golden, who fought in silence for the truth for nearly a decade.
Cullars-Golden said her life was shattered by what happened on that January night in 2015. She was a Saint Paul Police reservist for two decades, volunteering hundreds of hours for the department. That is what makes what happened so troubling for her.
"You will never put me back together again because my son is not here with me, with all the people that love him. All because of these lies," said Cullars-Golden at a news conference Thursday afternoon inside Saint Paul’s Rondo Library.
Cullars-Golden now believes the department lied and slandered her 24-year-old son to justify the shooting in a snowy, apartment complex parking lot.
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Marcus Golden's mother blasts St. Paul PD after reaching settlement in son's killing
Ericka Cullars-Golden was a Saint Paul police reservist who volunteered "hundreds of hours" for the department in that time. She was appalled by what she believes were lies and smear attempts by the SPPD to cover up the death of her son in a deadly encounter in 2015. The family settled with city this week. She is speaking out now, to make sure the world knows the truth.
Officials had said, Golden drove his SUV directly at officers, who opened fire. A grand jury convened in neighboring Washington County failed to indict the officers involved. But the Golden family, backed up by a strong group of supporters and activists, conducted their own investigation, finding discrepancies in the evidence including the angle of gunfire that suggested Golden was shot while driving away, in a position where he posed no threat to police.
"Marcus was shot in the back of the head, the bullet exited through his right eye. Marcus was killed as he left the scene intentionally by the officers without justification. And that is murder," concluded Cullars-Golden family attorney Paul Bosman.
The city of Saint Paul signed off on a $1.3M settlement with Golden’s family this week. That settlement denied all allegations, and admitted no liability.
There was no video evidence of the encounter as officers did not wear body cameras at the time. Squad cameras were not engaged either.
It was also one of the last cases the Saint Paul Police Department investigated internally, now those cases are investigated by an outside agency, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.