New York City has dropped its two-year appeal that blocked Mohamad Bah's family from receiving his wrongful death settlement award.
The New York Daily News reports the city agreed to pay Hawa Bah, Mohamad's mother, a settlement of $1.9 million.
In 2017, a civil trial determined Bah should be awarded $2.2 million after a jury found New York Police Department (NYPD) officers Edwin Mateo and Michael Licitra liable for Mohamad's death. Mateo killed Bah, and Licitra was found to have been negligent in his supervision of Mateo, the Amsterdam News reported.
However, Hawa Bah never received the money as city attorneys successfully blocked her from obtaining the settlement on two separate occasions.
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The first time came immediately after the settlement was awarded. Attorneys for the city claimed the officers were protected by qualified immunity, a law that states government officials are immune from civil liability. In May 2018, a judge determined qualified immunity protected Licitra but not Mateo.
The following month, the city attempted to stop the settlement again, appealing for Mateo's excessive use of force sentence to be overturned. The city also argued against the Bah family's request that it pay the $1 million in attorney fees they said they accrued throughout the ordeal.
On Wednesday the city agreed to settle with the family for $1.9 million, plus legal fees. The city has decided to drop its appeal; however, a judge must still approve the deal.
Mohamad was murdered in 2012 when NYPD officers shot and killed the 28-year-old in his home. The studying immigrant was reportedly distressed at the time. Hawa says she visited him the day before his death and found that he appeared unlike himself, emotionally distressed and depressed, in need of medical evaluation.
Hawa says he refused to go to the hospital, so she called 911 for assistance from paramedics. Medical personnel did not appear, however. Instead, emergency service officers of the NYPD came. Bah's family maintains the police illegally entered their home without a warrant and broke down the door with their weapons drawn.
Bah, who had a knife on his person at the time, was shot eight times and died from sustained injuries. No charges were filed by the state, the NYPD or the judicial system against the responding officers.
After the Bah family filed suit, it was discovered the NYPD intentionally misplaced evidence. The department also faced allegations of purposely mishandling critical pieces of evidence, like Bah's knife, which was taken to a flood-prone NYPD warehouse just days before Hurricane Sandy.
Although the presiding judge had harsh words once this came to light, the court ultimately cleared the NYPD of the destruction of evidence, as the judge found it to be an unprovable allegation.
Randolph McLaughlin, a lawyer for the Bah family, said Hawa Bah is pleased the case has finally reached its conclusion.
“She’s been suffering since the day her son was shot and killed in his apartment," McLaughlin said. "At long last she can finally go forward with the memory of her son not as a victim of police violence but a champion of civil rights.”
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