Chicago, IL – A Cook County jury on Tuesday awarded $1.3 million to the family of an armed gang member who was shot by police in 2015 (video below).

Alfontish Cockerham, 23, was fatally shot by police on June 20, 2015 after he led them on a chase that ended in the 7000-block of South Merrill Avenues, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Police said that Cockerham, a known member of the Gangster Disciples, led police on a chase and turned and pointed a gun at officers before he was shot, according to the initial report given to the civilian review panel.

Surveillance video recovered from the camera of a nearby business showed Cockerham running past the camera on a sidewalk and then doubling back.

The video, which was blurry, appeared to show that Cockerham dropped his weapon as he fled an alley with officers close on his heels.

A split second later, the officer behind him fired his weapon and Cockerham went down between two parked cars.

He died in the hospital a few days later.

Cockerham’s family and community activists raised a hue and cry at the time, and claimed the video showed that Cockerham was on the ground surrendering when he was shot by Chicago Police Officer Anthony Babicz, WLS reported.

However, experts who reviewed the video said that the officer had no choice but to shoot Cockerham after he pointed a gun at them.

“What else should the officer have done? Waited? No, that’s ridiculous. The officer acted appropriately,” Jeff Cramer, a former federal prosecutor, told WLS.

Cramer said the video showed Cockerham was not shot after he was down on the ground.

“At no other point is he shot on the ground, not happening. It’s happening during the chase,” he said.

But Cockerham’s family filed a civil lawsuit against the city and Officer Babicz in 2016 that alleged the shooting was unjustified, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Despite the ambiguity of the blurry surveillance video, a jury found in favor of the plaintiffs on Dec. 11, and awarded $1.3 million to the gang member’s family.

“I’m just so glad we have that tape,” his aunt, Laquida Cockerham, told WBBM.

“It meant everything. It’s our word against theirs, but with the tape, it just put the frosting on the cake,” she said.

Cockerham’s family has maintained that there’s no proof he ever pointed a gun at police.

“Nobody saw it. And we took it to a jury just in case we were going blind,” Nenye Uche, the family’s attorney, told WBBM. “The jury has said ‘We don’t care where a person is coming from or what a person has done. We only care about one thing: if you shoot somebody is it justified? Because that’s a human being.’”

A spokesperson for the city of Chicago’s law department said they were disappointed in the verdict and were exploring their options for appeal.

Officer Babicz remains an active member of the Chicago Police Department and has been promoted to detective since the shooting, WBBM reported.

Watch video of the shooting below: