"Welfare Check" by Police Leads to Northern Michigan county agreeing to pay $250,000 as a result of a deadly standoff

GRAND TRAVERSE COUNTY, MI -- Grand Traverse County leaders recently agreed to a $250,000 insurance payout to settle a 2007 standoff that ended with a police shooting death.

The settlement ends a lawsuit filed by the family of 49-year-old Craig Carlson following his Nov. 10, 2007 shooting death by sheriff's department sniper.

The case largely surrounded the sheriff's department's failure to get a warrant against Carlson before firing tear gas canisters through windows and tossing a throw phone inside Carlson's residence that contained microphones and a hidden camera.

A federal Court of Appeals judicial panel in 2015 said the failure to get a warrant could constitute a violation of Carlson's Fourth Amendment rights. The judges reversed an earlier ruling to dismiss the county from a lawsuit.

Police were called to Carlson's home in Karlin for a welfare check. Relatives told dispatchers he was suicidal and armed, and they feared he would provoke a shootout.

A standoff began that last 12 hours before a sharpshooter killed Carlson as he was pointing a rifle in the general direction of three deputies. He had been talking to the deputies in those moments.

The attorney for the county, Christopher Cooke, confirmed the settlement amount on Friday, Aug. 31.