Court upholds $1 million award from fatal Cape shooting

The U.S. District Court of Appeals for the Eastern District of Missouri has upheld a $1 million award for the family of a man killed in 2008 in Cape Girardeau.

In 2012, a seven-person jury awarded $1 million to the children of Zachary Snyder, 23, of Dexter, Missouri, who was killed by a Department of Corrections officer. The appellate court upheld that decision Thursday, according to court documents.

In February 2008, the corrections officer, Steve R. Julian, a fugitive unit investigator, was called to an apartment complex on Themis Street. The caller reported that Snyder, wanted for a parole violation and failure to appear, was at the complex.

Reports from the night of the shooting show Julian went to a parking lot on Themis Street, pulled his service pistol and approached Snyder. Witnesses said Snyder initially was compliant, but turned and ran, at which point Julian admittedly shot him in the back. Snyder died as a result, and Julian was charged with involuntary manslaughter.

Julian was found not guilty on the manslaughter charge in October 2008, but Snyder's estate later brought action through attorneys Daniel Moore and Stephen Walsh, now of the Walsh & Walsh law firm in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, and Dennis Wilson of Dexter. The estate sued for civil rights violations, excessive force and wrongful death.

kwebster@semissourian.com

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