LOS ANGELES : $337,000 Settlement OKd in Fatal Police Shooting
The Los Angeles City Council on Friday agreed to pay $337,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by a woman whose son was shot to death by a police officer who reportedly mistook a camera in the man’s hand for a gun.
Ismael Valerio, 20, was killed last year after officers responded to a report that young men with guns were congregating in front of an apartment building in the Pico-Union neighborhood west of Downtown.
Two LAPD officers confronted Valerio and two other men, one of whom was carrying a rifle, according to a city attorney’s report on the incident. Valerio raised a dark object, which later turned out to be a camera, and one of the officers responded by firing a shotgun, the report said.
Valerio’s mother, Christina Martinez, will divide the award with her attorneys.
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