West Virginia officer fired after refusing to shoot man with gun settles lawsuit for $175,000

Stephen Mader settled a wrongful termination lawsuit after he refused to shoot a black suspect in 2016. (City of Weirton/Facebook)
FOX NEWS - A West Virginia police officer who was fired after he refused to shoot a man who had a gun has settled a wrongful termination lawsuit for $175,000.
Stephen Mader, 27, claimed he did nothing wrong in May 2016 when he tried to persuade R.J. Williams, 23, of McKees Rocks, Pa., to put down his weapon. Mader was an officer with the Weirton Police Department in West Virginia at the time of the incident.
Another officer later saw Williams with his gun raised and fatally shot him. Williams’ gun was unloaded. Mader said he determined Williams, a black man, wanted to die by “suicide by a cop.”
Mader, an Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran, said he believed he did the right thing and that his firing was unjustified. In a statement, he said he was "happy to put this chapter of my life to bed. My hope is that no other person on either end of a police call has to go through this again."
Mader said Williams did not pose a risk of death of bodily injury to himself or others. After Mader ordered Williams to drop his unloaded gun, Williams responded, "I can't do that. Just shoot me," according to the lawsuit.
Weirton City Manager Travis Blosser said Monday, however, that the city stands by Mader’s firing.
Officials in Weirton, an Ohio River community of 19,000 residents 36 miles west of Pittsburgh, had said Mader was fired eight weeks after the shooting for conduct unbecoming of an officer in three separate incidents.