The city of Los Angeles will pay nearly $40 million to settle three lawsuits alleging abuses by the Los Angeles Police Department, including one brought by the family of a Trader Joe's store manager who was accidentally killed by an officer firing at a fleeing suspect.

Merida “Mary” Corado was shot and killed at the Silver Lake store where she worked in 2018. Her father and brother filed a lawsuit against the city and the officers involved in the shooting, alleging they recklessly fired into a crowded store.

The $9.5 million settlement with the Collado family, which had been previously negotiated but not made public, was the smallest of the three payouts approved by the City Council on Friday.

Others are as follows:

• $17.7 million to the family of Kenneth French, 32, a mentally disabled man who was shot and killed by an off-duty Los Angeles Police Department officer inside a Costco in Corona in June 2019.
• $11.8 million to James Simpson, an elderly man who suffered a traumatic brain injury when a Los Angeles Police Department detective ran a red light and crashed into a fallen traffic light pole.

The council unanimously approved all three settlement proposals.

In a statement released through their lawyer, Ms. Corado's family said they wanted to “keep her memory alive forever.”

“We can never bring Mary back to us, and we are forever heartbroken that she was violently killed by those in a position to protect and serve our community,” the statement said. “We hope this settlement sends a clear message to the LAPD and all law enforcement agencies across the nation that officers must be considerate of their surroundings when firing their firearms.”

The family's lawyers said the settlement is the largest pretrial award ever made in a Los Angeles Police Department shooting case.

“Mary's death could have been entirely prevented if the officers had followed their training and considered their own backgrounds when firing their guns,” attorney Neil Gehrawat said. “Officers must consider the danger to bystanders when using lethal force, and the officers in this case failed to do so.”

Corado was shot and killed on July 21, 2018, by two police officers who were pursuing Jean Evin Atkins, a man accused of shooting and killing his grandmother and her boyfriend, then taking his girlfriend hostage. Prosecutors allege that Atkins led police on a lengthy police pursuit in his grandmother's car, during which he fired shots at officers, ran red lights and crashed into multiple vehicles.

The chase ended at a Trader Joe's on Hyperion Avenue, where Atkins parked his car and ran toward the store, which was crowded with Saturday afternoon shoppers.

Atkins fired at officers, who returned fire when they entered the store. One of the officer's bullets struck Corado, killing him. Atkins was wounded in the arm but held shoppers and employees hostage inside the store for three hours before turning himself in. His trial is pending.

The Los Angeles Police Department came under heavy criticism for the shooting and killing of a pedestrian, with then-Chief Michel Moore describing the incident as “every officer's worst nightmare.”

In French's case, the $17.7 million compensation is roughly the same amount awarded by a federal jury in 2021 after it found Officer Salvador Sanchez used excessive and unreasonable force. Sanchez, who was later fired, was off-duty when he clashed with French in a sausage tasting line.

Sanchez's lawyers argued in the federal trial that Sanchez was taken to the ground during the shootout and believed French was armed, and that Sanchez's bullets killed French and wounded his parents.

The police commission determined that Sanchez violated department rules. Sanchez was also charged with manslaughter and assault, but those charges were dismissed earlier this year. A call to the French family's lawyer was not returned Friday.

Simpson sued the city after he suffered multiple injuries when Los Angeles Police Department Detective Alex Pozo ran a red light in Chino while driving a city-owned vehicle in August 2020. The driver of the SUV swerved to avoid hitting Detective Pozo and struck a traffic pole, which fell on Simpson, 70, as he was walking on the sidewalk.

The City Council voted not to approve a settlement with a Los Angeles Police Department sergeant who filed a lawsuit after being repeatedly disciplined for controversial posts on his personal Facebook and Instagram accounts. Sergeant Joel Siddamma accused the LAPD of singling him out for expressing political views they didn't like.

“We rejected their recommendation and asked that the case proceed to court,” said City Councilman Bob Blumenfield.

Sydhamma's lawyer, Caleb Mason, said he was “disappointed” that the city appears to have backtracked on a signed settlement agreement.

“My client waited three and a half years for a trial date and then agreed to withdraw the trial date two weeks before trial based on the word of the city's senior prosecutors. He trusted them,” Mason said.

Friday's payment will be in addition to more than $171 million in taxpayer money paid since 2019 to settle lawsuits alleging wrongful death, excessive use of force, negligence and discrimination by the LAPD, according to records from the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office.

That figure could grow as the city appeals several large awards, including the $4 million a jury awarded to then-Chief Lillian Carranza, who sued for allegedly doctoring nude photos of herself and sharing them with coworkers.