The Colorado Springs City Council on Tuesday voted to settle a federal lawsuit filed in late 2022 by a Black man who was beaten by police during a traffic stop in October of that year.

The council voted 7-1 to approve a settlement amount of $2.1 million. Councilman Dave Donelson was the sole dissenting vote. Councilman Mike O’Malley was absent.

“This settlement should stand as a warning to all those who think their badges entitle them to brutalize the men and women they’ve sworn to protect and serve. You are not above the law and if your own department refuses to hold you accountable, we will,” Dalvin Gadson Ochoa’s attorneys said in a statement Tuesday.

Gadson Ochoa, an Army veteran, is represented by national civil rights attorneys Harry Daniels and Bakari Sellers, as well as Latrice Latin and Kevin Mehr.

Gadson Ochoa’s 20-page complaint said Colorado Springs police officers Colby Hickman, Matthew Anderson and Christopher Hummel beat him on Oct. 9, 2022, after they pulled him over for driving without a license plate.

Body-camera footage of the incident shows when Gadson Ochoa asked police why they were detaining him and declined to get out of his vehicle, the officers repeatedly punched and kicked Gadson Ochoa as they removed him from the vehicle and after.

The officers all claimed in post-event interviews they felt the use of force was justified because Gadson Ochoa allegedly resisted arrest. A knife that police said was in Gadson Ochoa’s car made them feel there may be additional weapons in the vehicle, they said.

The police department conducted an internal investigation into the officers’ use of force. The report, released in August, concluded the force the officers used was justified, even though the officers’ fears proved to be “unfounded.”

Prosecutors in early 2023 dropped all charges against Gadson Ochoa in the incident. He faced two counts of second-degree assault on a police officer, resisting arrest, obstructing a police officer, driving under the influence and driving without license plates.

The assault charges were dismissed in November 2022 and the remaining charges were dropped Jan. 30, 2023.

The Colorado Springs Police Department declined to comment on the settlement Tuesday.

Officers Hickman, Anderson and Hummel are “still employed and in good standing with the department,” spokeswoman Caitlin Ford said.

The August report released by police said Hummel would be suspended for 10 hours and removed as a police training officer for making inappropriate comments after the altercation with Gadson Ochoa.

The report also noted concerns related to Anderson’s conduct in the incident, noting Anderson punched Gadson Ochoa in the face and head 13 or 14 consecutive times and 11 to 12 times in his side and abdomen.

The report said Anderson’s actions did “not appear to be a pattern of behavior” and recommended a “supervisor discussion record” and 10 hours of remedial scenario training on use of force.

The report recommended minor reprimands for officers involved in the incident but who were not named in the lawsuit.

The city, too, declined to comment on the settlement Tuesday.

“We will reserve further comment on this case until it reaches final settlement,” city spokeswoman Vanessa Zink said in a written statement.

An Oct. 3 memo from the United States Department of Justice’s Office for Civil Rights to the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights division of the department confirmed it had received an official complaint from Gadson Ochoa, alleging Colorado Springs police racially discriminated against him and used excessive force during his arrest.

The memo said the DOJ would wait to review the complaint until after Gadson Ochoa’s civil lawsuit against the Colorado Springs police officers occurred.

Gadson Ochoa’s attorneys said in their Tuesday statement they will continue to work with the DOJ in the matter “and we will not stop until justice is done.”

Colorado Springs police have faced several claims of excessive force in recent years.

Daniels, Sellers and Mehr are also representing Kenda James, who in February filed a lawsuit against a Colorado Springs police officer and a Fire Department paramedic, alleging their actions in the fall constituted an excessive use of force that resulted in the death of James’ 62-year-old father, Kevin Dizmang.

Daniels, too, is representing Jacob Root, who on Thursday filed a $100 million lawsuit alleging police shocked him with a Taser and left him paralyzed when they arrested him on May 16, 2022.

In mid-March, the city agreed to pay $195,000 to settle an excessive force complaint filed with the Police Department’s Internal Affairs Unit in November 2022.

The complainant, whose name was redacted from the seven-sentence complaint, alleged he was following police orders to raise his hands as he was being arrested on May 14, 2022, when a Colorado Springs police officer deployed a Taser on the complainant “for no reason.”

That claim was resolved before the complainant filed a lawsuit in the matter.

In February 2022, the city settled a civil lawsuit for nearly $3 million brought by the estate of De’Von Bailey, a 19-year-old Black man who was killed in 2019 when Colorado Springs police officers shot him four times in the back.

A grand jury rejected filing criminal charges against the two officers involved in that shooting.