Gregory Hill Jr.

Gregory Hill Jr., 30, a father of three, was shot and killed by St. Lucie County, Florida Sheriff's Deputy Christopher Newman on January 14, 2014, after deputies responded to a neighbor's complaint about loud music coming from his garage. Hill raised the garage door to answer deputies, then lowered it again; as it closed, Newman fired four shots through the door, striking Hill three times, including once in the head. An unloaded handgun was later found in Hill's back pocket. A grand jury declined to file criminal charges. Hill's family pursued a federal civil rights lawsuit, and in 2018 a jury found Newman was not liable, assigning Hill himself 99 percent of the responsibility for his own death because he was intoxicated, and the sheriff's office only 1 percent; the resulting award, reduced accordingly, came to four cents. No one has ever been charged in Hill's death.

Fort Pierce, FL · St. Lucie County

• 2014: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The noise complaint, the garage door encounter, and the shooting, per court records and contemporaneous reporting from The New York Times, CBC, and the Associated Press.
• A parent picking up a child from a nearby school called in a complaint about loud music coming from Hill's garage; Deputy Christopher Newman and a partner responded to Hill's home in Fort Pierce.
• Hill raised the garage door partway to answer deputies, then lowered it again; as the door was closing, Newman fired four shots through it, striking Hill three times, including once in the head.
• Deputies said they saw Hill holding a weapon; an unloaded handgun was later found in his back pocket. Hill's blood-alcohol content was found to be 0.40, five times the legal driving limit.
• A grand jury reviewed the shooting and declined to file criminal charges against Newman.
• Hill's family filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Newman and the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office; a SWAT team that had responded to the scene during the initial standoff was separately accused by the family's attorney of using enough tear gas to render the home permanently uninhabitable.
• After 10 hours of deliberation in May 2018, a federal jury found Newman was not liable for Hill's death and that Sheriff Ken Mascara's office bore only 1 percent of the responsibility, assigning Hill himself 99 percent for his own death due to intoxication.
• Because of the 1 percent liability finding, the jury's damages award, which covered funeral costs and the pain and suffering of Hill's three children, was reduced to four cents total; jurors later told the court they had been confused by the deliberation instructions.

• Whether Newman's decision to fire through a closing garage door, without a clear line of sight to whether Hill posed an active threat at that moment, was a reasonable use of deadly force was never resolved at any criminal trial, since the grand jury declined to file charges.
• Why jurors in the 2018 civil trial expressed confusion about the deliberation instructions before reaching their verdict, and whether that confusion affected the outcome, has not been independently examined beyond jurors' own notes submitted to the court.
• The full extent of damage the family's attorney alleged the responding SWAT team caused to the home during the standoff has not been independently confirmed in the sources reviewed for this summary.

• CBC News — “Florida jury awards $0.04 to family of black man fatally shot by police”
• The Washington Informer — “Florida Co. Makes $4 Judgment for Fatal Police Shooting of Black Man”
• Global News — “Family of man shot dead by police in his own garage awarded $4 by jury”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs