New York City has agreed to a $2 million settlement with the family of a mentally ill woman who was fatally shot by a New York City police sergeant two years ago as she wielded a bat in the bedroom of her Bronx apartment, city officials said Thursday.
The agreement, which was reached this week, is the latest development in a highly contentious and at times racially charged debate surrounding the death of the woman, Deborah Danner. The case became a flash point in national discussions over whether police officers are too quick to shoot people and whether they are adequately trained to work with people suffering from severe mental illness.
Ms. Danner, a 66-year-old black woman, was shot by a white police sergeant, Hugh Barry, 32, on Oct. 18, 2016. The shooting drew swift condemnations from Mayor Bill de Blasio and James P. O’Neill, the police commissioner, who said Sergeant Barry had failed to follow protocols, though neither said he had committed a crime. Sergeant Barry was charged with several counts including second-degree murder in May 2017 and was acquitted on all of them by a State Supreme Court judge in February.
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