Suit Over Police Shooting Settled for $400,000

Pasadena city officials agreed last week to pay $400,000 to the relatives of a man shot and killed two years ago by a stray police bullet.

The settlement, reached Sept. 1, brings to an end a negligence lawsuit filed in Pasadena Superior Court against the city on behalf of the disabled mother and three young children of Howard Martin, an innocent bystander killed in a police shootout.

“The facts of this case cried out for some amount of justice,” said attorney Eric Ferrer who represented Martin’s mother and one of his two sons, Kevion.

Martin, 22, died May 2, 1992, when Pasadena police exchanged gunfire with gang members at Los Robles Avenue and Claremont Street. Pasadena police had been called to the location because of noise complaints from a party attended by more than 200 people.

The shooting occurred during the time that riots erupted in parts of Los Angeles after not guilty verdicts were issued in the first trial of four Los Angeles police officers accused of beating Altadena motorist Rodney G. King.

When the shooting began, Martin sought cover inside a nearby building. But he was struck in the head by a bullet fired by Officer Mariano Vindiola that ricocheted and pierced the apartment wall.

Under the settlement, Martin’s three children--Howard Jr., age 4; Tatiana, 2, and Kevion, 4--will receive a total of $225,000. The money will be put in an annuity fund that will, over time, accrue $800,000 for each child for a total of $2.4 million, Ferrer said.

Under a staggered payout plan, the children will receive money at age 18 to 21 for college. Thereafter, they will get lump sums every five years, the attorney said.

Martin’s mother, Erma, 47, will receive a lump sum now of $60,000. Ferrer and two other attorneys who represented the other children will receive fees totaling $115,000, he added.

Family members agreed to the settlement because it reduced the risk of a possible lower award from a jury, Ferrer said. The settlement provides security for Martin’s children and gives needed money to the mother, he added.

Ferrer faulted Vindiola for firing 14 rounds in the general direction of muzzle flashes coming from an apartment building. Instead, the officer should have held his fire until he targeted a person holding a gun, the attorney said.

The settlement sends a message to the Police Department that it should re-examine its procedures and training, said attorney Joe Hopkins, who represented Martin’s son, Howard Jr.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office concluded in an 890-page report in April, 1993, that Pasadena police were not at fault in Martin’s death. About 47 officers were called to the scene and 10 fired 100 shots. But the officers acted in self-defense, the investigation found.

City Councilman Chris Holden, in whose district the shooting occurred, said that officers called to the scene feared that the site could become the flash point for extensive civil unrest in Pasadena. The result was indiscriminate shooting, he said.

“It was a great tragedy and it shouldn’t have happened,” Holden said. “To provide in a fair and equitable way for the family is the least we can do at this point.”