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City to settle with family of Iowa mother killed by officer

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June 6th, 2018 by Ric Hanson

BURLINGTON, Iowa (AP) — A city in Iowa has agreed to settle a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of a woman who was mistakenly shot and killed by a police officer. Attorneys for the city of Burlington and the estate of Autumn Steele notified a federal court of the settlement Wednesday. Details of the agreement weren’t immediately available. Steele was a 34-year-old mother when she was killed in January 2015 in front of one of her young children.

Steele was shot by officer Jesse Hill, who was responding to a domestic disturbance between Steele and her husband outside their home. Hill intended to fire his weapon at a growling family dog but the shot struck Steele in the chest and killed her. Attorneys for Steele’s estate argued last month in federal court that police video that’s been withheld from the public contradicts the official narrative that the dog bit Hill.