The wife of a Bronx man who was fatally shot by a police officer while defending his stepdaughter is suing for $285
million.
The wrongful death suit filed Friday names the city and Officer Michael Falcione.
Sandra Rodriguez says her late husband, Alex Figueroa, confronted several men he believed had harassed his 18-year-old
stepdaughter.
The 2008 faceoff in a Bronx apartment building turned into a brawl that included the wife, the stepdaughter and a friend.
Plainclothes officers said Figueroa had a bat and they feared he might attack them. Witnesses told police the officers ordered him to freeze and drop the bat. One officer then fired, fatally wounding Figueroa.
His wife says she was standing next to him when he was shot, and had done nothing wrong. She told the Daily News in 2008: "I was standing right next to him when they shot him dead. He had his arms at his side. He was doing nothing," Figueroa's distraught wife, Sandra Rodriguez, 35, said yesterday. "My husband didn't move."
