Pittsburgh man's kin settles police shooting suit

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A woman has tentatively settled her lawsuit claiming her son was wrongly killed by a state trooper who previously was the subject of a $12.5 million settlement for fatally shooting an unarmed 12-year-old boy in the back.

The federal lawsuit filed by Diane Zion more than five years ago contends Trooper Samuel Nassan III and a Pittsburgh officer, Sgt. Terrence Donnelly, wrongly fired at Nicholas Haniotakis in the early morning hours of March 15, 2009, as the city’s bars were emptying after St. Patrick’s festivities.

The officers claimed they fired only after a drunken, drugged Haniotakis — who had an extensive criminal record that included other instances of escaping from or attacking police — tried to hit officers with his vehicle during a brief chase.

The lawsuit was filed before toxicology tests from an autopsy revealed Haniotakis was drunk and had Xanax, morphine and cocaine metabolites in his system.

The plaintiff’s attorneys, Geoffrey Fieger and Robert Giroux, of Detroit, and Austin Henry, of Pittsburgh, on Monday filed a motion for a judge to approve a tentative settlement and the payment of attorneys’ fees. Zion’s lawsuit was also filed on behalf of her son’s three surviving children.