City to Pay $1.25 Million in 1991 Fatal Stabbing

The city will pay $1.25 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of a Hasidic student who died after being stabbed during the Crown Heights race riot 14 years ago.

The family of Yankel Rosenbaum, a Hasidic scholar and doctoral student from Australia, claimed Kings County Hospital Center was negligent in failing to detect a 4-inch stab wound for more than an hour, an oversight that led to his death a day after he was attacked.

The Aug. 19, 1991, rioting in the Crown Heights neighborhood in Brooklyn started after a 7-year-old black boy was fatally hit by a car driven by a member of the Hasidic Jewish community. Three hours later, a mob attacked Rosenbaum.