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City to pay Corona mom $2.5M for son’s death

City to pay Corona mom $2.5M for son’s death
Photo by Christina Santucci-Inset courtesy the Polanco family
By Bill Parry

New York City has reached a $2.5 million settlement with the family of an unarmed National Guardsman who was shot and killed by an NYPD detective as he was driving late at night on the Grand Central Parkway in 2012, according to the family’s attorney.

Noel Polanco, 22, was shot in the stomach by a member of the NYPD Emergency Service Unit Apprehension Team, Hassan Hamdy, who saw Polanco reaching for something he believed was a weapon after he was pulled over by officers. Polanco later died at New York Hospital Queens in Flushing.

No weapon was found in the car, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said, and a grand jury decided against formally charging Hamdy.

Polanco’s mother, Cecilia Reyes, of Corona, filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit in Brooklyn in July seeking damages in excess of $75,000 as a judgment for assault and battery in the shooting of Polanco.

“This is a reasonable and fair settlement for damages in the wrongful death of a fine young soldier,” family attorney Sanford Rubenstein said. Polanco, a member of the National Guard Reserves, worked at the Paragon Honda in Woodside.

Hamdy was one of several officers in two unmarked vans driving in the center lane eastbound on the Grand Central Parkway Oct. 4, 2012, at 5:15 a.m. when Polanco was seen in his black 2012 Honda Fit Hybrid near Exit 7 in East Elmhurst, the NYPD said.

Officers said they saw Polanco driving erratically in the right lane, cutting between vans, tailgating another vehicle in the left lane, then cutting back in-between the vans to the right lane, police said.

One of the two passengers in the car, Diane DeFerrari, said Polanco kept his hands on the steering wheel. The other passenger, off-duty Officer Vanessa Rodriguez, was sleeping at the time.

“The family feels they did not get justice in the criminal side of the case but on the civil side this family did get a measure of justice,” Rubenstein said.

Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at [email protected] or by phone at 718-260-4538.