Money settlements have their place. An apology from a government official is worthless. Pay the guy a couple 100k and blame the official.
Fire the cop. I get that. Giving an 18 year old a couple of hundred thousand for being scared I do not get. Cash does not fix the problem. What is the money for, "emotional distress?" The only people that get punished by a cash settlement in a case like this are the taxpayers. Sounds like an entitlement mentality to me.
There were a couple of times in the military I thought I was going to die because of someone's incompetence. Should their employer, the government, make me a millionaire?