Pittsburgh Settles Off-Duty Police Shooting Suit

The city of Pittsburgh and an officer’s insurance company will pay $44,500 to settle a lawsuit claiming a man was pistol-whipped and shot him in the hand because the off-duty officer mistakenly believed the man had attacked him.

Twenty-three-year-old Kaleb Miller filed the federal excessive force lawsuit last year stemming from an incident in June 2008.

Officer Paul Abel Jr. was fired but reinstated after a judge acquitted him of aggravated assault and other crimes last year.

Miller’s suit says Abel attacked him about 2:10 a.m. Abel has testified that he was assaulted at a stoplight after leaving a bar and went looking for the assailant, who he initially believed to be Miller.

Miller was briefly arrested, but released once police realized he wasn’t the man who attacked Abel.