Case Explained:This article breaks down the legal background, charges, and implications of Case Explained: Anthony Thompson Jr.’s family settles police shooting suit with Knoxville – Legal Perspective
Knoxville police investigation clears cops in shooting death of Anthony Thompson Jr.
Knoxville police chief Paul Noel announces the findings of the internal investigation into the shooting death of Anthony Thompson Jr.
Knoxville News Sentinel
The settlement reached between Knoxville police officers and the family of Anthony Thompson Jr. was finalized by a federal judge Jan. 15, capping a yearslong, painful legal fight for his family.
The settlement agreement is not public, though each party will pay its own expenses and attorney’s fees, according to a filing made by Margaret Held, the attorney for Thompson’s mother, Chanada Robinson.
It was the last piece of a legal fight that started when 17-year-old Thompson was shot and killed by a Knoxville officer inside an Austin-East Magnet High School bathroom in 2021.
The settlement cancels a scheduled jury trial where officers would have had to defend why they did not provide medical care for Thompson as he lay dying near them on the bathroom floor.
How quickly medical care was provided to Thompson was the central point of what remained of the lawsuit, not whether officers acted appropriately leading up to or during the shooting. He lay dying on the floor of the bathroom for about 5 minutes before he was treated by a school nurse even as the officers attended to one of their own who was shot by a fellow officer.
Officers did not check Thompson’s vital signs, one officer sat on Thompson’s bleeding body and Lt. Stan Cash stood over Thompson to wash blood from his hands as the teenager was dying.
A federal appeals court allowed the family to sue over the narrow argument. In an earlier ruling, a federal judge decided Thompson’s family could not sue over the officers’ use of force and whether his arrest was lawful, and the appeals court upheld that decision.
 KPD’s own internal review noted the lack of immediate medical care.
The Sixth Circuit majority opinion from 2025 said there was enough evidence to ask a jury whether the officers “deliberately or recklessly disregarded Thompson’s objectively serious medical needs.”
“Although the officers were not required to exhaust every option to save Thompson’s life, they were also not permitted to stand idle, i.e., by attending other matters or sitting on Thompson’s bleeding body,” the opinion said.
Thompson was killed April 12, 2021, after four officers converged in the Austin-East bathroom where he and a friend were hanging out as Thompson cooled off from an argument with his girlfriend earlier in the day. Some of the argument was captured on school security footage and appeared to show Thompson pushing the girl.
The girlfriend’s mother told police Thompson was known to carry a gun, which he was because he feared for his safety after the mother sent him a series of threatening texts, according to the lawsuit.
The gun was in the front pocket of his hoodie when officers approached him in the bathroom. It discharged as officers grabbed him, the bullet hitting a nearby garbage can. Officer Brian Baldwin immediately dropped from Officer Jonathon Clabough’s view. Clabough mistakenly believed Baldwin had been shot and fired two rounds.
The first struck Thompson in the chest. The second struck school resource officer Adam Willson in the leg.
District Attorney Charme Allen ruled after the shooting the officers were justified in using deadly force. None of the officers involved were disciplined for their actions.
Judge denies Thompson’s father’s last-minute request
U.S. District Judge Charles Atchley Jr. dismissed the Jan. 6 filing by Anthony Thompson Sr., who had not been included in the lawsuit, requesting the court reward him half of any settlement reached.
Thompson Sr. waited until the night before the two sides had a settlement conference. He asked too late, Atchley ruled.
Tyler Whetstone is an investigative reporter focused on accountability journalism. Email: tyler.whetstone@knoxnews.com; X: @tyler_whetstone.