Robert Hinton, 28, made headlines after leading a lawsuit against prison guards who hog-tied and beat him leaving him with a broken nose and fractured vertebra in 2012.
Hinton, who has a violent history as a member of the Bloods gang, was serving time for parole violation. He was released in March and awarded the money in September. Previously, he faced charges of attempted murder.
As of Saturday afternoon, police have not made any arrests in connection to the shooting, which took place outside a housing project in Brownsville, Brooklyn, close to the apartment Hinton shared with his mother in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
“We had a conversation about how hopeful he was, about how the settlement money was going to give him a chance for a fresh start,” said his lawyer Nicole Bellina in an interview with The New York Times.
According to Hinton’s lawsuit, a captain and five guards shackled his arms and legs before dragging him to a solitary confinement room where they beat him. An administrative law judge called the move “brazen misconduct” and the Department of Correction fired those involved.
