Family Of A Mistakenly Shot Teen By NYPD Officers Gets $3M

Family Of A Mistakenly Shot Teen By NYPD Officers Gets $3M

Introduction

The city of New York will pay $3 million to the mother of a mentally ill kid who was slain in a hail of police bullets after cops mistook a hairbrush for a rifle.

Five officers fired 20 rounds at the 18-year-old kid outside his house in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, on November 12, 2007, sparking marches and indignation from criminal justice activists. The homicide also garnered the attention of the state senate, which alleged that the NYPD withheld footage of the deadly gunfire.

The victim's mother is heartbroken and admits that raising her mentally ill child has been difficult. She went on to say that her child's untimely death had broken her heart.

The lawyer representing the plaintiff said that the city agreed to settle the case but in the end it is only money that the mother will get but not her son so anyway it is a loss for her even if the verdict favors her.

 A lawsuit brought by the victim's mother sat in state court for almost a decade before the city won summary judgement and had the case dismissed in 2017. However, a state appeals panel overruled that ruling two years ago, stating that a jury should decide whether the cops used excessive force.

The victim's mother phoned Interfaith Medical Center's mobile crisis team at about noon on the day of the incident to beg for assistance with her son. He had a mental disease history and had stopped taking his anti-psychotic medicines.

A crisis team arrived at her house at 6:30 p.m., but he was not present, so the team departed. When the teen returned a few minutes later, the mother contacted the cops.

During the 911 call, the kid could be heard repeatedly shouting in the background that he had a gun, but the mother stressed that he did not have a firearm in a follow-up contact with the dispatcher.

When officers arrived at the residence, they saw the youngster in a hallway with two knives, according to the then-NYPD Commissioner. Officers escorted the mother and her 11-year-old daughter out of the house, and the mother repeatedly stated that her son was not carrying a gun.

According to the first police statement, as the policemen approached the youngster, he brandished the blades and yelled at them to shoot him and grab him. He climbed out a window and landed on the sidewalk, then motioned with an object hidden beneath his hoodie. Officers fired 20 rounds, striking the youngster 13 times. The thing he was holding was a black hairbrush.

The city defended the officers by stating that they did the right thing and it was not their fault, as they misunderstood the hairbrush to the gun. The lawyer representing the plaintiff argued that the three witnesses and bystanders of the scenario said that the story is different from what the city officials mentioned.