WARREN — A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit against a former Niles police officer found by a federal judge in a civil rights case to have used excessive force and reckless conduct in the shooting death of a Niles man.

An attorney for the estate of Matthew Burroughs said a settlement was reached with Christopher Mannella, who retired from the Niles police force in 2020, in a case heard before U.S. District Court Judge Sara Lioi.

The settlement amount has yet to be disclosed, but the attorney said it was in excess of $75,000. An official amount will be revealed in an official filing in Trumbull County Probate Court but the attorney for the estate couldn’t give a determination of when that would be.

Burroughs, 35, was shot and killed in a car that was running at the Royal Mall apartment complex on Jan. 2, 2019. The car driven by Burroughs earlier was involved in a pursuit after a clerk in Niles Municipal Court recognized Burroughs as being wanted on an assault and aggravated menacing warrant.

The facts of the case, taken from depositions in the case heard by Lioi, show that Burroughs had escaped from a probation officer who tried to detain him outside the court, driving his white Ford Fusion to the Royal Mall area.

When Burroughs reached the Royal Mall apartments, his car was boxed in by police cruisers. When Mannella both shouted and hand signaled to Burroughs to stop his car, the Fusion continued forward toward the officer. At this point, Manella drew his service weapon, firing three rounds into the windshield, which penetrated the glass and struck Burroughs in the chest.

The doors of the Fusion were locked and the vehicle was still in drive when officers had to break a passenger window in order to unlock the car. The vehicle then lurched forward, striking a dumpster and several vehicles in the complex parking lot.

A subsequent Niles police internal affairs investigation, Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office inquiries found officers to have complied with the department’s use-of-force policy.

On March 4 2022, Lioi dismissed the city of Niles, police Chief Jay Holland, James Reppy and Paul Hogan as defendants in the civil rights case. It was filed on behalf of Burroughs’ estate, represented by Timothy Rainey, in U.S. District Court for Northern Ohio, proceeding with the four claims only against Mannella.