NYPD Raging at $5,000 Payout to Machete-Wielder

NEW YORK (AP/Hamodia) —

The NYPD is furious that a man shot by police after threatening them with a machete has received a $5,000 settlement from New York City.

Ruhim Ullah, of Brooklyn, filed a $3 million lawsuit against police even after he pleaded guilty to menacing officers during the 2010 confrontation. He was shot once in the leg by an officer trying to stop him from attacking police with the 18-inch blade.

Scott Cerbin, Ullah’s lawyer, claimed his client dropped the machete before he was shot. But he admitted that “this may have been a justified shooting” by police.

Police Commissioner William Bratton said Thursday he was “outraged” by the payout and said he was scheduled to meet Mayor Bill de Blasio to find out more details.

The Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association blasted the payout as “one of the many frivolous lawsuits that the city prefers to settle because it’s cheaper than defending it in court.”

City law department spokesman Nick Paolucci defended the settlement as “in the city’s best interest.”

But Bratton said it was “outrageous [that the] city law department is continuing to not support the men and women in this department.”

If the report was accurate, he added, “I and the law department certainly owe those officers an apology.”

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