A settlement is being worked out in the $25 million federal civil lawsuit alleging that two Richmond Police officers and two Richmond Ambulance Authority emergency medical personnel fatally smothered city resident Joshua L. Lawhon three years ago.

Notice of the settlement has been posted, with final details still being negotiated in the wrongful death case filed by Mr. Lawhon’s mother, Angela Lawhon of Chester. The settlement would need the approval, as well, of the U.S. District Court in Richmond, where the case is being heard.

The announcement of the settlement, though, came just two months after a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that none of those involved in the deadly smothering were immune from legal action.

The case has drawn little public attention — and no criminal charges — despite its eerie similarity to the widely publicized police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020. Derek Chauvin, the police officer who fatally smothered Mr. Floyd by kneeling on his neck, was later convicted of murder.

Mr. Lawhon, 32, who was not charged with any crime, had a couch pillow held over his face for more than 5 minutes as he resisted the officers’ efforts to transport him from his South Side home to a psychiatric facility at the request of his now deceased girlfriend, Shaunna N. Tunstall, who had called authorities.

According to the suit, the officers handcuffed Mr. Lawhon and then put him on the floor and held the pillow over his face with help from the two Richmond Ambulance Authority employees who also had been called to the scene.

According to the suit, Mr. Lawhon, who went limp, was rushed from his home in the 3600 block of Stockton Street in South Side to a hospital, where he was determined to be brain dead.

The named defendants in the lawsuit include former Richmond Police Officer John Edwards and still active Master Police Officer LaShaun Turner. Also named are now former RAA emergency medical technician Alexander Mayes and a second EMT, Christopher Tenley, who is still with RAA.

Michael N. Herring, then Richmond’s commonwealth attorney, declined to prosecute those involved, and the city’s current chief prosecutor, Colette W. McEachin, has not reopened the case to determine if criminal charges are warranted.