The world’s biggest tech companies are currently dealing with a class action lawsuit that accuses them of colluding to keep employees’ wages down. 

The companies — Apple, Google, Adobe, etc. — were accused of having no-poaching agreements so they wouldn’t hire each others’ employees. The case could be settled for anywhere between $ 3 billion and $ 9 billion this week.

When the case is finalized, employees of companies could be rewarded with thousands of dollars in compensation.

However, one person is going to miss out on his chance to collect the money. Brandon Marshall, “who helped set in motion a class-action lawsuit against the companies,” according to the New York Times, died last December when he was shot by a sheriff’s deputy. 

In all of the stories about alleged collusion case, the story of Marshall has barely gotten any mentions in the press.

Marshall worked at Adobe for six months, which is how he was attached to the lawsuit. He is one of the five plaintiffs mentioned in the case.

He had been working for TV streaming company Roku at their offices in Saratoga before he died. Dell employee Kent Squarcia, who was in a meeting with Marshall and another Roku employee, witnessed the shooting, according to The San Jose Mercury News. 

During the meeting, Marshall had called his father to come pick him up because he said he was having a problem. Then, Marshall had opened a bottle of what appeared to be prescription medicine and consumed five or six pills. 

“He chewed them like they were Pez,” Squarcia told The San Jose Mercury News.

Marshall then went to the lobby, laid on the floor and began to consume more pills. Someone in the office called 911 since it seemed like Marshall was attempting to overdose. Squacira, however, didn’t get that impression.

“I didn’t get the feeling he was trying to kill himself,” he said to the San Jose-based publication. “I felt like something in his mind was broken and he was trying to fix it. I’ll stick by that until the day I die.”

Squarcia also said that he didn’t feel like Marshall was a threat to anyone in the office, but just said that he seemed disoriented because of his medicine.

Marshall ran to the parking lot where paramedics soon arrived, Squarcia said to The San Jose Mercury News. Deputies told the publication that Marshall “suddenly became agitated” and had taken out a five-and-a-half inch metal spike and attacked one of the deputies. The deputy feared for his life and fired his gun, hitting Marshall in the chest. Marshall continued to fight with the officers as they restrained him. He was eventually taken to a nearby hospital where he died.

It’s unclear exactly what triggered Marshall’s behavior that day, but another key plaintiff suggested that the case may have been a burden. Michael Devine, another class representative who had previously worked at Adobe, said that Marshall had been affected by social media reactions to the case.

“You know how nasty and abusive folks get in online comments,” Devine said to The New York Times. “It apparently really hurt him.” 

Join the conversation about this story »