County Government To Pay $1.5 Million To Settle Lawsuit Brought By Family Of Locksmith Who Was Murdered Alongside Deputy Sheriff In Ambush By Foreclosed Homeowner In Eviction Gone Bad

In Modesto, California, The Modesto Bee reports:

• Stanislaus County will pay $1.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by survivors of a locksmith killed alongside a deputy sheriff in a 2012 eviction gone bad on Modesto’s Chrysler Drive.
  
  Added to $1 million spent on attorney fees, the $2.5 million cost to taxpayers is the highest among dozens of lawsuits involving the Sheriff’s Department in Sheriff Adam Christianson’s 10-year tenure.
  
  “Neither the county, nor the sheriff or his deputies, were responsible in any way for the intentional acts of the shooter Jim Ferrario, who ambushed and murdered” locksmith Glendon Engert and Deputy Bob Paris, said County Counsel John Doering. “We understand the tragic loss suffered by the Engert family because we too suffered the loss of one of our own, and no amount of settlement will fully compensate for those losses.”
  
  Engert’s mother, Anne, said: “I still cry for my son, and I will for the rest of my life. His death has left a permanent wound in our family that does not lessen, irrespective of any compensation.”
  
  The lawsuit, filed three years ago in federal court, contended that the 35-year-old locksmith might have expected better protection from Paris, 53, and his partner, since-retired Deputy Mike Glinskas. They had been warned about the gunman’s instability and military-grade weapons but did not alert Engert.
  
  Occupant Jim Ferrario, 45, had lost through foreclosure a fourplex unit, where he had lived many years with his father, when the deputies arrived to evict Ferrario and secure the property for the new owner. Engert was trying to disable a heavy security door lock when Ferrario, using a high-powered assault rifle, fired from inside, killing Paris and Engert. A lengthy standoff ended when the home went up in flames, ignited by Ferrario, who committed suicide surrounded by a cache of weapons and ammunition.

For more, see Lawsuit over deadly Modesto ambush settled for $1.5 million (Stanislaus County approves out-of-court deal paying slain locksmith’s family; Although warned about armed ‘weirdo,’ deputies told locksmith – alerted by noise – to keep drilling door lock).