In photo, racist suspect, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck. From [HERE] In what is likely a record judgment, a jury on Friday handed down a $24-million verdict against the  Los Angeles Police Department for the shooting of a 13-year-old boy who was playing with a replica gun. His injury left him paralyzed.

The case centered on a December 2010 encounter in which Officer Victor Abarca and his partner were on patrol in Glassell Park shortly before 8 p.m., according to police records.

The officers, who told investigators they were in search of graffiti and gang activity, came upon Rohayent Gomez and two of his friends on a street. Gomez's attorney, Renaldo Casillas, said the evidence and testimony from two eyewitnesses to the shooting "completely blew apart" Abarca's account.

Casillas said Gomez was playing "cops and robbers" in the street near his home with his friends. They each had airsoft pistols that fire small plastic pellets and are made to look like actual firearms.

The witnesses told jurors that the officers arrived and immediately drew their weapons, Casillas said. Gomez, who was hiding behind a parked van to reload his pellet gun, was unaware of the police, Casillas said, and was startled when Abarca came around the side of the van.

The witnesses said the officer gave one command ordering Gomez not to move and then fired a single shot at the boy as he took a step out of surprise, Casillas said. The eyewitness testified that the officer shot the teen seconds after the boy came out from behind the van. The boy was hit in the chest and is now paralyzed.

That account differs dramatically from the one Abarca gave investigators. Abarca said that in the darkness he was unaware he was confronting a teenager and claimed that the boy ignored repeated commands to come out from behind the van.