$1.5 MILLION AWARDED TO VICTIMS IN PHILADELPHIA'S MOVE BOMBING.Byline: Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. Eleven years after police dropped a bomb on the MOVE row house, starting a fire that killed 11 people and destroyed a neighborhood, a jury ordered the city and two former officials Monday to pay $1.5 million to a survivor and relatives of two dead members of the radical group. After nine days of deliberations, the jury found the city used excessive force and violated MOVE's constitutional protection against unreasonable search and seizure unreasonable search and seizure n. search of an individual or his/her premises (including an automobile) and/or seizure of evidence found in such a search by a law enforcement officer without a search warrant and without "probable cause" to believe evidence of a . Ramona Africa, the only adult to survive the blaze, was awarded $500,000 from the city: $400,000 for pain and suffering and $100,000 for disfigurement dis·fig·ure tr.v. dis·fig·ured, dis·fig·ur·ing, dis·fig·ures To mar or spoil the appearance or shape of; deform. [Middle English disfiguren, from Old French desfigurer from burns suffered in the fire. Relatives of MOVE founder John Africa John Africa was the founder of MOVE, a militant communal and political organization prominent in the United States in the early 1970s. He died on May 13, 1985, along with several of his armed followers, when the Philadelphia Police Department bombed the MOVE headquarters (a and his nephew Frank Africa, who both died, received a total of $1 million from the city for pain and suffering. The May 13, 1985, confrontation killed five adults and six children in the MOVE house and burned 61 homes in the surrounding neighborhood. Despite a special commission finding that top city officials were ``grossly negligent'' and two grand jury investigations, no one from city government ever was criminally charged. Ramona Africa, 41, escaped with a 13-year-old boy then known as Birdie Africa by crawling through a basement window. She served seven years in prison on a riot charge. She and relatives of the dead sued the city, former Police Commissioner Gregore Sambor and former Fire Commissioner William Richmond Christopher William Richmond (1821 - 1895), generally called William Richmond, was a 19th century New Zealand politician. He held a number of Cabinet positions between 1856 and 1861. Richmond was probably born in London on 12 July 1821. . The jury ordered Richmond and Sambor to pay Ramona Africa damages of $1 per week each for 11 years, specifying that the awards be paid weekly. Birdie Africa, who now goes by the name Michael Ward Michael Ward may refer to:
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