$6.4 million recommended in 2 police custody death cases

CHICAGO (AP) - A Chicago City Council committee is recommending the city pay more than $6.4 million to families of two men who died in police custody.

During a finance committee hearing on Monday, aldermen angrily denounced the officers who ignored the pleas of the parents of Philip Coleman to take him to a hospital for psychiatric treatment before the incident in which he was pulled from his jail cell and shot repeatedly with a stun gun. Coleman later died after being given an anti-psychotic drug.

They were equally incensed about the 2014 death of Justin Cook and about how witnesses said police, after chasing Cook, refused to let him use his asthma inhaler before he suffered a fatal asthma attack.

The full council will vote on the settlements on Wednesday.