$2M in Bx. death
Kin of mentally ill gal shot by cop settles with city
The city will pay $2 million to the family of a mentally ill woman shot and killed by a police officer in her Bronx home, officials said Thursday.
Deborah Danner, 66, was shot twice in the chest by Sgt. Hugh Barry on Oct. 18, 2016 as she confronted several police officers called to her apartment when she suffered a serious meltdown.
Four cops and two EMTs were at the scene when Barry, a colleague and Danner’s sister Jennifer arrived at the scene.
Danner was adamant that she needed no help from the cops or EMTs, and that she didn’t want to go to the hospital.
Barry persuaded Danner to drop a pair of scissors as she stood in the building hallway wearing only a nightgown, said a lawsuit Jennifer Danner filed in Manhattan Federal Court.
The confrontation escalated quickly — and Danner allegedly swung a 32-inch baseball bat at Barry’s head.
Barry said he fired because he feared for his life. Danner was disabled and 5foot-6. Barry is 6 feet tall and 225 pounds, according to the suit.
Jennifer Danner’s lawsuit said the the deadly confrontation was unnecessary and a violation of NYPD protocol. She said in court papers that her sister had “a history of being harmless.”
Soon after the shooting, Mayor de Blasio slammed Barry and the NYPD’s actions in the case.
“Miss Danner should not have died,” the mayor said, adding that cops could have used a Taser or waited for an Emergency Service Unit to reach the scene. “We were called to help her, and we ended up killing her,” he said.
A statement by the city Law Department on Thursday echoed some of the mayor’s initial sentiments in the case.
“The City has agreed to a settlement with the family of Deborah Danner, a person who struggled with mental illness, tragically killed in an encounter with police,” said a city Law Department spokesman.
“We carefully considered the facts impacting the civil claims against the City, including the criminal indictment of a responding officer and the disciplinary charges pending against him,” the spokesman said.
“This agreement is a fair resolution of a tragic case and hopefully it brings some measure of relief to the family. The City is committed to preventing these tragedies from happening.”
A judge found Barry not guilty of second-degree murder and all other charges at a two-week trial in Bronx Supreme Court in February. If convicted, he could have been sent to prison for 25 years.
Barry remains on modified duty and is awaiting a NYPD disciplinary hearing.
Barry was the first NYPD officer charged with murder since 1999, when four plainclothes cops were charged with killing Amadou Diallo in the Bronx’s Soundview neighborhood as he reached for his wallet.