The city is set to pay $1.1 million in taxpayer money to the family of a bystander fatally shot by an undercover NYPD officer during a gun-buy sting gone awry, according to a release by the Comptroller's Office authorizing the settlement.
The Daily News reports that city lawyers agreed to the payout after the widow of the victim, Felix Kumi, filed paperwork indicating her intent to sue. Kumi, 61, drove a school bus and lived in Mount Vernon, where on an afternoon in August 2015 a plainclothes detective traveled to buy a gun from a black market seller. The sale took place in a parked car, and according to the NYPD, a man climbed into the back seat with the officer and held up him and the gun dealer at gunpoint. When the alleged robber, Alvin Smothers, ran off with the money, the unidentified officer called for backup, called on Smothers to stop, and opened fire.
Police alleged that Smothers pointed his gun at the detective a second time as he fled, before the officer unloaded. The court papers viewed by the News say that the cop failed to identify himself, and shot within five seconds of the robbery, firing 21 bullets and hitting Smothers twice in the back.
Kumi was crossing a street at the time and was hit in the torso. Smothers survived, but Kumi died early the next morning at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx.
Responding officers recovered the sting money and a fake .45-caliber pistol.
The Comptroller's Office signed off on the settlement in October 2016, and according to the News the deal is supposed to include $375,680 in legal fees for Kumi's family's lawyer.
Smothers is being charged with robbery and second-degree murder, apparently for the events leading to Kumi's death. Those charges are still pending. The detective who killed Kumi has not been publicly identified, but according to the tabloid he quit the force in October and is collecting a disability pension for his post-traumatic stress disorder. He has not been charged with a crime.
