NEW YORK — New York City has agreed to pay $12 million to a former Wall Street trader who was paralyzed by the pandemic in June 2020. police-involved shooting in Manhattan’s East Village, the Daily News has learned.
Peyman Bahadoran has been permanently confined to a wheelchair without the use of his legs since he was shot by two NYPD officers just before 7 a.m. on June 4, 2020, outside a grocery store on Third Ave. near E. 10th St.
Bahadoran was in the midst of a mental health episode and was carrying a knife in a sheath on his belt when he went to the grocery store with his small dog and got into a confrontation with two officers.
But he had left the knife in the store and was unarmed when he was shot outside the grocery store by 9th Precinct officers Jillian Suarez and Bryan Rozanski.
New York police said the shooting was “within guidelines.” But taxpayers will now have to foot the enormous bill for Bahadoran’s ongoing medical care and quality of life.
“The legal department recognized the seriousness of what happened, but unfortunately the NYPD did not,” said Bahadoran’s attorney, Earl Ward. filed a complaint in federal court in Manhattan in 2021.
Justice Department spokesman Nicholas Paolucci said: “This result provides a solution for all parties.”
The city tried to have the lawsuit dismissed, arguing in part that the officers feared for their lives, but in a Nov. 8, 2023, ruling, Manhattan Federal Court Judge Jesse Furman rejected the motion“There is no doubt that he was unarmed at the time of the shooting,” Furman wrote.
The judge noted that Suarez and Rozanski both testified that they “did not see Bahadoran carrying a knife immediately before he shot him.” The video shows Lt. Luis Machado, the highest-ranking officer on the scene, holstering his firearm as Suarez and Rozanski fired.
Machado and another officer, Michael Murphy, each testified that they saw that Bahadoran was unarmed.
Bahadoran, now 59, is paralyzed below the waist but continues to suffer severe pain despite his paralysis, Ward said. He is unable to work and must use a colostomy bag.
“It’s a very difficult and hard life,” Ward added. “He suffers every day from the consequences of what happened to him.”
Suarez, the daughter of NYPD officer Ramon Suarez who was killed on 9/11was transferred to a coveted position within the NYPD’s Crime Scene Unit in October 2022.
As settlement negotiations reached their peak earlier in 2024, Suarez was promoted to detective investigator in January and was promoted again to third-grade detective in May, according to NYPD personnel records.
Rozanski, still an officer, was transferred in November 2023 to the NYPD’s public information office, also considered a desirable position, records show.
On the day of the incident, Bahadoran left his apartment around 6:30 a.m. with his small dog and a 12-inch Defender X-Treme knife in a holster attached to his belt and went to the Healthy Green Gourmet Deli.
He was in the midst of a manic episode exacerbated by nighttime dizziness…
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