Mayor Wheeler Statement on City Council Approval of the Quanice Hayes Case Settlement

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Members of the media,

Please find a statement below from Mayor Ted Wheeler regarding today’s City Council approval of the Quanice Hayes case settlement agreement.

“While I’m grateful we reached a settlement with the Hayes family, we all know money does not, and cannot, replace a lost son, relative, or friend. I understand that for the Hayes family, this case was about finding answers.

For me, the fundamental lesson from the death of Quanice Hayes is this: every shooting, no matter the circumstances, creates waves of trauma that begins with those directly involved and then ripple outward until our entire community is impacted – families, doctors, nurses, neighbors, first responders, all of us.

When other systems and interventions have failed, young men, particularly black and brown men, too often are failed by our education, employment, and other systems. It’s clear there’s immense trauma that precedes every law enforcement action. And the trauma doesn’t end there.

Whether we acknowledge it or not, we all suffer. The trauma doesn’t end, it only evolves with time. It’s up to each of us to guide that evolution toward upstream solutions, towards reconciliation, toward peaceful resolutions that build community instead of harming it.

I find myself asking which upstream systems failed? What are we doing as individuals in this system to create the wrap-around services that lead to different choices and better outcomes?

We all are part of it. We perpetuate it. We operate in it. A family and so many others are now suffering as a result.

Civil litigation is always uncertain, but it allows all parties to begin the healing process.”

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