Jury awards $21M to family of pregnant teen shot by police

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — A federal jury has awarded $21 million to the family of a pregnant teen who was shot and killed by undercover police officers in Northern California five years ago.

Elena Mondragon was a passenger in a car that collided with a police van. Officers opened fire, fatally shooting Mondragon. She was 16 and in her first trimester of pregnancy.

Her family’s wrongful-death complaint described the killing as “a botched covert arrest operation.”

Lawyers say the jury decided to split culpability between the man driving the car and the officers, so that the city of Fremont will likely supply about $10 million of the award.

Fremont officials did not immediately comment on the jury’s decision.