COUNCIL BACKS SETTLEMENT; CITY TO PAY $200,000 TO FAMILY OF MAN SHOT DEAD BY OFFICER.

Byline: Patrick McGreevy Daily News Staff Writer

The City Council voted Wednesday to pay $200,000 to settle a lawsuit by the family of a Pacoima man who was fatally shot by an LAPD officer after threatening the officer with a broomstick while on the drug PCP.

Efrain Lopez, 18, died after he was shot nine times in the body by Officer Neil Goldberg during a Nov. 9, 1992, incident.

Officers were responding to a call by Lopez's mother, who told arriving officers that her son had attacked her and her boyfriend and had broken a window in their home, according to a report by the City Attorney's Office.

Officers later found Lopez wandering the neighborhood in his underwear and a blood-stained shirt. Lopez was threatening the officers with a broomstick while shouting, ``Shoot me! Shoot me!''

When Lopez ignored officers' demands that he drop the broomstick and instead lifted the stick to swing it at Goldberg, the officer fired his weapon, and he continued to fire as Lopez kept advancing, the city attorney's report said.

An investigation found that Lopez had a high concentration of the powerful psychedelic drug PCP in his bloodstream.

The LAPD ruled that the shooting was ``in policy,'' and the District Attorney's Office determined that Officer Goldberg had no alternative but to shoot his attacker, but the City Attorney's Office said a jury might have ruled against the city in the civil lawsuit filed in federal court.

Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, who is no relation to the officer, agreed that the settlement was preferable to risking a much larger judgment in court.

``He was shot nine times. It wasn't going to be an easy one to win,'' Goldberg said. ``But I don't think anybody believes it was anything other than a dangerous situation. Someone on PCP is dangerous.''

Frank O'Kane, an attorney for Lopez's family, did not return calls for comment.

The City Council also voted Wednesday to pay $285,000 to settle a lawsuit by a family that suffered serious injuries in a traffic accident near Van Nuys Airport that was blamed on inadequate traffic controls.

Thelma Hernandez and her children, Bryan, 7, and Sylvia, 15, were injured in January 1992 when their car was hit by another vehicle as it headed westbound on Sherman Way and attempted to turn left onto southbound Valjean Avenue.

Hernandez alleged that at the time she made her left turn, she was unable to adequately observe approaching eastbound traffic as it emerges from under the airport runway on Sherman just before Valjean, according to a report by the City Attorney's Office.

A traffic consultant hired by the city said the 35 mph speed limit is adequate for the intersection, but the city admitted that most cars went through the intersection at 50 mph and there had been a previous accident with identical circumstances at the location.

In addition to paying Hernandez and her children a settlement well below their demand of $900,000, the city has installed a left-turn light in the signal at the intersection.