City to Pay More Bills of Police Shooting Victim
The Los Angeles City Council has raised to $52,000 its contribution toward the medical bills for Grover Smith, a bystander shot by an elite undercover squad of the LAPD in Northridge in 1997.
The council voted Friday to add $2,000 to the budget for Smith’s medical bills after doctors determined he needed corrective surgery for a metal rod used to replace part of his right thigh bone, said attorney Stephen Yagman, who is representing Smith in a multimillion-dollar federal lawsuit against the LAPD.
“Obviously, the city believes Mr. Smith is going to prevail [in court]. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be paying this,” Yagman said.
Smith was shot in the leg by officers of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Special Investigation Section, who mistook him for a suspect in an armed robbery of The ClassRoom Bar in Northridge on Feb. 25, 1997.
Three suspects in the robbery were killed during a gun battle after officers chased the robbers into a cul-de-sac.
An LAPD use-of-force board concluded that the shooting was justified because Smith did not obey officers’ orders to halt as he approached them.
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