Al Hixon
Al Hixon (born September 2, 1960 in Birmingham, Alabama) is an African American who came in for some national prominence through a police brutality case won in Minnesota. The Golden Valley, Minnesota man won the largest punitive damage award in a police case in Minnesota history from a jury trial, September, 2007. Al (Aljuan) Hixon, who is black, was brutalized at his neighborhood gas station on April 2, 2005, of whom a business relationship was established for over twelve years.
While the 911 transcript reveals that the Golden Valley police had twice been informed that a white male in a white van had robbed a local bank, two Golden Valley police officers proceeded rapidly to a nearby the gas station and arrested Mr. Hixon, a dark-skinned black man, who was refueling his Jaguar automobile.
"We have the black man," one of the officers was recorded saying on the 9-1-1 tape.
Hixon was pepper sprayed in the face and his nostrils and arrested for bank robbery and resisting arrest. Hixon, a local business owner, was 45 years old at the time of the brutality. Hixon was known throughout the state for his community service work and numerous awards, he stills suffers from Posttraumatic stress disorder. Hixon and his wife Sheri still reside in Golden Valley, Minnesota with their three children.