3 N.Y. Police Shooting Victims Awarded Nearly $2 Million

The city agreed Wednesday to pay a total of $1.87 million to three young men shot in Harlem by police officers investigating a shooting, lawyers in the case said.

The deal averted a trial in the youths’ federal lawsuit, which was scheduled to start in six weeks.

Robert Raynoso, Juval Green and Caesar Ramos had originally asked for more than $100 million in damages, alleging that they were unarmed when two plainclothes officers fired at them in 1997.

Raynoso was hit once in the stomach, Green was struck in the leg and Ramos was grazed. After the shooting, the lawsuit alleged, the officers shouted at the men to “shut . . . up or I’ll shoot you again.”

Raynoso and Green were handcuffed to their hospital beds for three days, the lawsuit said. They were initially charged with criminal possession of a weapon and menacing, but the charges were later dropped.

“We believe that the police officers acted appropriately under the circumstances,” said Tom Crane, a lawyer for the city. “But there were some extenuating circumstances that prompted us to settle the case.”

One of the youths’ lawyers, Robert L. Herbst, said the deal calls for Raynoso to get $1.5 million, Green to get $355,000 and Ramos $20,000.

Herbst compared the incident to the death of unarmed African immigrant Amadou Diallo, who was fired upon 41 times by four plainclothes officers in 1999. The four officers were cleared of criminal charges last month.

“Like the Diallo case, this case illustrates that the city has a lot of work to do to supervise, train and better discipline its officers so that they don’t shoot innocent people down in the streets,” he said.