SAN JOSE — The City Council on Tuesday gave final approval to a $620,000 payout to settle a civil rights lawsuit filed by seven people who claimed they were unjustly targeted and injured by San Jose police trying to break up crowds during the downtown George Floyd protests five years ago.

Of the settlement amount, $500,000 will go to Derrick Sanderlin and his wife, Cayla. The couple sought damages after Sanderlin, while trying to calm tensions between a crowd of demonstrators and a police skirmish line, was shot in the groin with a police projectile by an officer near City Hall on the afternoon of May 29, 2020. His injury drew wide attention because he was an activist who once helped conduct bias training for San Jose police officers.

All of the plaintiffs were either observing or participating in San Jose demonstrations decrying the police killing of Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020, after he was accused of using a counterfeit $20 bill at a local store. Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who while restraining Floyd notoriously pressed his knee on a prone Floyd’s neck — prompting him to say “I can’t breathe” before he died — is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence.

Vera Clanton, a legal observer with the National Lawyers Guild, will receive $40,000 from the settlement. Clanton claimed her Fourth Amendment rights were violated May 31, 2020 when she was arrested and manhandled by police officers despite being there strictly to document the protests.

The remaining four plaintiffs will receive $20,000 apiece under the settlement terms, which include no admission of liability from the city. Breanna Contreras claimed she was peacefully demonstrating near City Hall on May 29, 2020 when she was hit in the right temple by a police projectile; officers fired hard foam rounds and lobbed tear gas to disperse crowds.

Pietro “Peter” di Donato claimed that on the same day he was complying with officers to back up when they fired munitions at demonstrators, one of which hit him in his left leg. That evening, Adira Sharkey claimed, she was peacefully demonstrating and had just given safety advice to a group of teens at the protest when she was hit in the ribs by a police round.

Joseph “JT” Stukes claimed he was participating in demonstrations on June 2, 2020 near City Hall when he was “rushed by dozens of SJPD officers,” and that as he tried to leave the scene, “he was purposely tripped from behind by an officer,” causing him to fall. Stukes alleged that while semi-prone, his right leg was hit by a foam round.

Prior to the settlement, the city had argued in legal filings that the four plaintiffs could not prove what caused their injuries, or that they were caused by police.

The settlement was reached in principle near the start of May, a few days before a federal civil trial was set to begin. The plaintiffs’ lawsuit was first filed in 2020 and was approved for trial by a district judge in March 2023. But the case was halted for a year and a half while the city mounted a challenge with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld the crux of the lawsuit.

San Jose has paid at least $5 million in legal damages stemming from 2020 protest lawsuits. That includes a $1.3 million federal civil jury award earlier this year for a man who claims he was hit in the leg with a police projectile. In 2023, the city paid $3.3 million to settle a lawsuit from several people injured during the protests, including a bystander who lost his eye after he was hit by a police round.