From [HERE] The New York City police detective who fatally shot a Brooklyn Black woman has been adefendant in six federal civil-rights lawsuits, most of them accusations of illegal searches and arrests, according to court records. The city has settled four of the lawsuits involving Detective Phillip Atkins, who shot and killed 23-year-old Shantel Davis on Thursday during what police described as a chaotic struggle in a moving car. The shooting was under investigation Friday, and Detective Atkins isn't accused of wrongdoing.

A witness said the shooting followed a high-speed car chase between plain clothes cops and the shooting victim. The witness, 30-year-old Hans Mencor, saw an unmarked police car chasing the victim's vehicle, a grey Toyota. When the victim crashed at East 38th Street and Church Avenue, plain clothes cops approached the vehicle and tried to get the woman to come out of the car. She refused, Mencor said.

"After that, it was like, boom!" said Mencor, referring to the sound of a gun firing. "They shot her inside the car." A woman who works at the laundromat Miss Bubbles, right near the scene, said she had a perfect view of the shooting from the shop. "She fell on her face, blood was just gushing out of her," said Collette, who would only give her first name. "She got out of the car, fell to her knees, and just fell down."