Crump calls Cox case settlement ‘historic justice'
'We got historic justice — the highest amount ever paid out in High Point, North Carolina,' prominent civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, the Cox family's lead attorney, told supporters during a press conference Thursday afternoon at the International Civil Rights Center & Museum in Greensboro.
'It's because of you saying they will not define the legacy of Fred Cox — we will define the legacy of Fred Cox.'
As The High Point Enterprise previously reported, a federal judge awarded the settlement in January, but Crump had not commented about the settlement publicly in the Triad before Thursday's press conference.
Joined at the podium by Cox's mother, Tenicka Smith of High Point, Crump praised her courage and perseverance throughout the nearly 4½-year 'journey to justice' that began when her 18-year-old son was slain by a Davidson County Sheriff's Office deputy on Nov. 8, 2020, after a funeral at a High Point church.
'She refused to let Fred's death be in vain,' Crump said. 'Your son is looking down from heaven, very proud of his mama.'
Smith tearfully thanked Crump and the rest of her legal team, as well as her family, friends and supporters.
'Fred was not just my baby — he was my only baby,' she said. 'I did not give up. I fought, I didn't sleep, and sometimes I slept too much, but I did not give up.'
The wrongful death lawsuit was filed in the summer of 2021, after a grand jury opted not to indict the deputy, citing 'insufficient evidence to support criminal charges.' The suit named the deputy, Michael Shane Hill, and the Davidson County Sheriff's Office as defendants, contending Hill gunned down the teenager without cause.
Hill fatally shot Cox at Living Water Baptist Church in High Point, where both were attending a memorial service for a young man who had been slain two weeks earlier in Davidson County. Cox was there as an acquaintance of the deceased, and Hill was investigating the homicide and attended the funeral at the request of the victim's family.
According to witnesses, as mourners were leaving the church, gunfire from two passing vehicles rained down near the church, causing mourners to scatter and seek shelter. Witnesses say Cox was helping a youth and his mother get into the church safely when he was shot four times — at least twice from behind — by Hill.
Cox, the father of two young children, died at the scene.
Also during Thursday's press conference, Crump announced the filing of a $100 million lawsuit in the case of Shanquella Robinson, a Charlotte woman who was killed while vacationing with friends in Mexico in October 2022. Following Robinson's death, a widely circulated video appeared to show the 25-year-old Black woman being beaten by one of her friends — reportedly a Jamestown woman — while the others watched.
The lawsuit was filed against the friends and the U.S. Department of Justice, which Crump said was 'malfeasant' in its response to Robinson's death. Citing insufficient evidence, federal prosecutors announced in April 2023 that no federal charges would be pursued in the case.
Crump compared the case to that of Natalee Holloway, a white teenage girl from Alabama who disappeared from the Caribbean island of Aruba in 2005.
'America went in and did whatever they had to do to bring justice against her killer,' Crump said. 'Why wouldn't they do the same for this young Black woman?'
Crump said he believes Robinson's family will win 'a historic verdict' in the case.
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