Family of Man Shot by Police at Wedding Receives $400,000 Settlement
It is unknown who is paying the settlement related to the death of Daniel Knight, but the city of Winter Park says it is not paying the money
Dec. 16, 2025
By Gabrielle Russon
The estate for Daniel Knight — the man shot and killed by Winter Park Police at his niece’s wedding in 2022 — is receiving a $400,000 settlement from a federal wrongful death lawsuit filed against the city of Winter Park, according to Polk County probate court records.
What’s not clear in the court records: Who is actually paying the money?
Knight’s estate “reached a confidential settlement agreement with named and unnamed defendants for a total of $400,000,” according to Sept. 24 court filing that gave an estate status report to the courts. The city of Winter Park and the two officers involved in the shooting were the named defendants in the federal lawsuit.
Winter Park officials already confirmed that neither the city or its police officers are the source of the settlement money.
Word of an agreement came earlier this year not long after a partial victory for the family when a federal judge ruled her claim could proceed against one of the officers, who fired his weapon seven times. The judge called the shooting “so far beyond the hazy border between excessive and acceptable force that the official had to know he was violating the Constitution even without case law on point.”
The settlement money will go to Knight’s adult child and his two minor children although $184,323 — almost half — will go to lawyers for fees and legal expenses, according to an Aug. 28 court filing petitioning to approve the structured settlement agreement.
The Courts approved that settlement agreement Sept. 29, a Nov. 21 filing said.
Paul Aloise Jr., the lawyer representing Knight’s fiancé, declined to comment nor acknowledge that a settlement had even been reached.
The mention of a $400,000 settlement appeared in the probate court records filed in Polk County Circuit Court. The records have been viewable online for weeks – which is how Winter Park Voice learned of the amount. A spokeswoman for the Polk County Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller said Friday the records were confidential and should not have been released. A short time later the court filings were no longer accessible on the website.
Previous virtual hearings in the probate case have been closed to the public this year.
No amount of money is worth the pain of losing her brother, said Katrina Knight, the mother of the bride, and who is not part of the settlement agreement.
Any settlement “doesn’t really mean anything to our family because the whole reason we even pursued this is to clarify what actually happened,” said Katrina Knight, who said the police put out misleading information about her brother’s death to justify his killing.
A Winter Park Events Center manager called 911 to complain about Knight, 39, acting “violent” and “trying to beat people up” at the wedding.
“There’s no video of him beating anybody up, pushing people, choking people,” Katrina Knight said. “There’s video of him dancing, having fun.”
“He just had too much to drink.”
No police officers have been held criminally responsible for Knight’s death. The federal lawsuit against the city of Winter Park was settled and dismissed in May without the city having to admit wrongdoing or pay anything to Knight’s family.
Police arrived at the wedding, and the situation escalated in seconds. In less than two minutes, Knight was dead.
U.S. District Judge Roy B. Dalton Jr. noted that Knight’s family had “sufficiently pled that the use of deadly force was not objectively reasonable under these circumstances” in a ruling this year.
“Here, Knight’s family begged the officers to slow down and pleaded that he was not hurting anyone, but [Sgt. Kenton] Talton shot him less than two minutes after arriving on the scene,” Dalton wrote in his Jan. 28 order. “Yet the initial crime for which (Knight) was approached was relatively insignificant—at best, drunk and disorderly. He posed little serious danger to two armed police because he was unarmed and drunk. He was not a flight risk given that he was surrounded by family.”
Police told Knight and his sister to “back up” and “move out of the way” 13 seconds after arriving. When Police Officer Craig Campbell tried to separate Daniel and Katrina Knight, Daniel yelled not to touch his sister and pulled her closer, previously released police body-worn camera footage showed.
A struggle ensued. Knight hit Campbell, who fell down. Talton shot at Knight, firing seven times. Five bullets struck Knight.
Knight left behind his three children and his fiancé Mellisa Cruz, who filed the wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Winter Park and police.
The American Civil Liberties Union and some law enforcement experts were critical of Winter Park Police for not using de-escalation tactics to calm the situation down, which they argue, could have prevented the physical altercation with police and Knight’s death.
“By slowing things down and using some distance, that gives the officers more time to come up with a plan,” Don McCrea, a 35-year law enforcement veteran who runs Premier Police Training, previously told Winter Park Voice. “Yelling or barking orders – that’s typically not considered a de-escalation tactic. Giving people an opportunity to explain what’s going on and take in the big picture, that’s what de-escalation is more about.”
WinterParkVoiceEditor@gmail.com
Recent Comments