CHICAGO (AP) — The family of a 14-year-old boy fatally shot by a Chicago police officer more than seven years ago has reached a $1.2 million lawsuit settlement with city officials.
The family disputed accounts from the officer that Pedro Rios Jr. pointed a gun at the officer multiple times during a foot chase before the officer shot the teen in July 2014.
Rios family attorney Mark Brown told the Chicago Sun-Times that the case was weeks away from a trial when the settlement was reach. Brown said that while Rios was carrying a gun at the time, there wasn’t evidence that he pulled it from his waistband before he was shot in the back.
Chicago’s Independent Police Review Authority, which preceded the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, investigated the shooting and ruled it justified.
“It is possible if not likely” that Rios “turned to see whether and how closely the officer was in pursuit and, in so doing, gave the officer the impression that he was threatening use of the gun,” the authority’s final report said.
A City Council committee was scheduled to consider the settlement on Monday.
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