The agreement comes amid heightened scrutiny of police violence,
particularly against people of color, in the wake of numerous
high-profile police slayings of unarmed black people since mid-2014
that have fueled the Black Lives Matter movement.
Danroy Henry Jr, 20, who was a junior at Pace University, where he
was a football player, was fatally shot by Officer Aaron Hess early
on the morning of Oct. 17, 2010.
Henry's parents, Angella Henry and Danroy Henry Sr, of
Massachusetts, filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Southern
District of New York, in White Plains, against the village of
Pleasantville, which is some 30 miles north of New York City, and
against Hess.
Michael Sussman, an attorney for the family, said they accepted an
offer of judgment in the amount of $6 million from the defendants.
Representatives for Hess and the town of Pleasantville could not be
immediately reached for comment Monday night.
Henry was with several friends at a bar when a fight broke out that
prompted the owner to close down around 1 a.m. and call the police,
according to prosecutors and court records.
Henry got in his car and waited for his friends in a fire lane
outside the establishment, and when an officer knocked on his car
window, Henry drove off.
Hess then appeared in front of the car and Henry attempted to brake
before striking Hess. After the collision, Hess opened fire on Henry
while on the car's hood, killing Henry and injuring a passenger.
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Federal prosecutors declined to bring charges against the officers
from the town of Mount Pleasant and Pleasantville, saying: "Neither
accident, mistake, fear, negligence nor bad judgment is sufficient
to establish a willful federal criminal civil rights violation."
Sussman said he was still pursuing a separate lawsuit against Mount
Pleasant and several of its officers, alleging they failed to
provide Henry needed medical care after the shooting.
Police killings that have sparked waves of angry protest and nights
of rioting elsewhere in the United States since mid-2014 have led to
multi-million dollar settlements, including a $6.4 million payout to
the family of Freddie Gray in Baltimore and $5.9 million to the
estate of Eric Garner in New York City.
(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Leslie
Adler)
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