Duy Ngo can no longer patrol the streets of Minneapolis and he won't be able to father any more children. Six shots from a colleague's sub machine gun while he was on duty nearly five years ago put an unimaginable end to those dreams.

The apology from Officer Charles Storlie went only so far. Ngo is sure he never really accepted responsibility. But a sense of validation came in the form of a $4.5 million lawsuit settlement approved by the City Council Monday afternoon.

It was the city's largest payout for a suit involving the Police Department, not including $900,000 in legal fees.

To Ngo, after 26 surgeries and months of rehabilitation, the money is irrelevant.

"You can't put a price on almost being killed," Ngo said.

The council voted 11 to 1 to approve the settlement, with Lisa Goodman the only "no" vote. She declined to comment.

Council Member Don Samuels said Goodman's vote shows the council wasn't in lock-step in favor of a settlement instead of going to trial.

"She may be trying to make a stand more than the rest of us at this point in time," he said.

Council President Barbara Johnson spoke briefly before the vote, emphasizing the unpredictable nature of police work. Council Member Ralph Remington said the settlement was "the least we can do to make this fine officer whole."The settlement was a staggering amount of money," said Mayor R.T. Rybak. "But it's staggering how much officers put their lives on the line."

Six shots

Ngo, now 35, was working under cover on gang surveillance in the early hours of Feb. 25 when he got into a confrontation with an armed man in an alley in south Minneapolis. He was shot in the side, but his bullet-proof vest saved him. Ngo radioed for help, describing the suspect who fled on foot.

Storlie was among the officers who responded. When Storlie arrived, Ngo was on one knee under a streetlight waving his arms. Storlie jumped out of his cruiser and almost immediately began firing his MP5 sub machine gun, striking Ngo six times. He had more than 15 wounds from where the bullets entered and exited his body.

The other officer in Storlie's squad didn't fire.

"I wanted to be rescued and I almost end up dead," Ngo said at a news conference Monday. "One officer chose to use deadly force and one didn't. They both can't be right."

When Ngo was shot, he had a radio microphone dangling from his chest and other police insignia visible, said his attorney Robert Bennett. And he didn't match the description of a black suspect, he added. Ngo is of Vietnamese descent.

Ngo's case put the Police Department under investigation and it spanned three police administrations, starting with Chief Robert Olson in 2003. Several missteps in the internal investigation forced Olson to order a high-ranking officer to critique how it was handled. Memos detailed evidence that was mishandled or ignored, and additional help requested by the lead investigators that was denied.

When Bill McManus became chief in 2004, he called a news conference to apologize publicly to Ngo and to squelch a rumor that Ngo had shot himself to avoid military duty. Several weeks later, McManus suspended three high-ranking officers for alleged mismanagement of the investigation. All three were cleared.

Ngo sued the city and Storlie for damages in 2004, claiming Storlie violated his civil rights by improperly using deadly force. The suit asked for $12 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages.