The five young men who sued a Bronx cop after he pulled a gun and had them arrested after one of them threw a snowball at him won a settlement Thursday as a jury deliberated their case.
NYPD Sgt. Adonis Ramirez, 34, and the city were slapped with the suit when video surveillance contradicted the story he told responding cops after he drew his gun while off duty and had them arrested.
The city will pay $60,000 each to Anthony Aquino, 19, Manuel Rondon, 22, Johnathan Rodriguez, 26, Christian Perez, 23, and Ariel Lopez, 21. Four of the men were in court for the news, and said they’re thrilled.
“We just wanted him to answer to his actions.There’s good cops and bad cops. And he’s a bad cop,” said Anthony Aquino, 19.
Manuel Rondon, 22, added, “We wanted justice at the end of the day. The police department has to fix things — and be careful who they give a gun to.”
But the victory was bittersweet for Perez, whose brother Brandon Burgos, 20, was shot to death at a public housing complex in Brooklyn in a drug deal gone wrong on Wednesday, police sources said.
Burgos and a pal, who planned to sell pills of ecstasy, met the gunman in a staircase of the “Pink Houses” in East New York, where he was fatally shot in the chest at around 7:45 p.m., police sources said.