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NYC Will Pay Over $4 Million To Family Of Man Killed By Cop In Stairwell
By
Emma Whitford
Published Aug 16, 2016
Modified Aug 16, 2016
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By
Emma Whitford
Published Aug 16, 2016
Modified Aug 16, 2016
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Following two months of negotiations, the city has finalized a wrongful death settlement with the family of Akai Gurley, the 28-year-old Brooklyn man who was shot to death by an on-duty police officer conducting a vertical patrol at an East New York housing project in November of 2014.
"The parties in the wrongful death lawsuit have reached a settlement agreement in the total sum of $4.525 million dollars," confirmed Ballinger's attorney Scott Rynecki in a statement Tuesday. "This settlement was reached after extensive negotiations guided by Supreme Court Justice, Dawn Jiminez Salta."
"We believe this is a fair resolution of a tragic matter," said a spokesperson for the City Law Department in a statement.
Former NYPD officer Peter Liang was convicted of second-degree manslaughter and official misconduct in the Gurley shooting this February, catalyzing protest from Chinese-American New Yorkers who argued that Liang had been scapegoated. Liang initially faced up to 15 years in prison. But in April a Brooklyn judge reduced the manslaughter charge to criminally negligent homicide and sentenced him to six months of house arrest and 500 hours of community service.
"Words cannot express how I feel about the fact that Peter Liang will serve no jail time for killing my son," Gurley's mother, Sylvia Palmer, stated at the time. "This system, and its agents, should no longer claim to be about justice, because they only produce injustice."
The wrongful death suit, brought by Gurley's partner Kim Ballinger, accused Liang and his partner Sean Landau of negligence and recklessness. It also accused NYCHA of failing to replace a light bulb in the darkened stairwell where Gurley was shot.
The settlement includes $4.1 million from the city, $400,000 from NYCHA, and $25,000 from Liang specifically for Ballinger. The NY Times reports that the $4.1 million will be paid out in installments to Gurley and Ballinger's daughter, four-year-old Akaila, starting on her 18th birthday. A portion will go towards a new college fund for Akaila, and the paper reports that Ballinger may petition for a monthly stipend.
According to the Daily News, Akaila's portion will be invested in annuities, estimated to grow to about $10 million over the course of her lifetime.
"I'm glad it's all done. I'm pleased with the outcome," Ballinger told the tabloid Monday.
The city paid $3.9 to the family of Ramarley Graham, an 18-year-old who was fatally shot inside of his Bronx apartment in 2012. The family of Eric Garner, who died in July 2014 when an NYPD officer put him in an illegal chokehold outside of a Staten Island deli, received $5.9 million from the city.
Mayoral spokeswoman Monica Klein stated Tuesday that "the death of Akai Gurley was a tragedy," adding that the city is taking measures to improve community and police relations with a new body camera pilot, and community policing. "We will continue to deepen these efforts under Chief of Department O’Neill’s leadership next month," she said.
"We hope the new incoming police commissioner James O’Neill will use this case as an example to review practices and procedures that are ongoing in the academy as well as in the street with pairing two rookies together,” Rynecki, Ballinger's attorney, told the News.
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Akai Gurley
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Peter Liang
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Emma Whitford
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