The releases were signed by the relatives of Eric Garner and delivered late on Monday to the New York City comptroller — seven signatures on nearly identical two-page forms, line after line with none of the import of the moment apart from one number: $5.9 million.

It was the culmination of months of negotiations, punctuated by divisions among family members and a paternity test of a young child, that ended in what the comptroller’s office described as the largest settlement in the history of the city over a killing by police officers.

The amount showed “an appreciation by the city that there was wrongdoing,” said Jonathan C. Moore, the lawyer for the family, even if no wrongdoing was formally admitted.

But because the case was settled through the comptroller, Scott M. Stringer, before a lawsuit was ever filed, many questions remained unanswered, both for the family and for advocates of police reform.