This is an updated version of a story posted at 3:42 this afternoon.

SPRINGFIELD - A federal jury on Monday awarded the mother of a teen struck and killed in traffic during a confrontation with police $1.3 million in damages.

Delano Walker Jr.

After roughly seven hours of deliberations, the nine-member panel found that police officer Sean Sullivan violated the civil rights of Delano Walker Jr. during an encounter on July 16, 2009. Testimony over a three-day trial in U.S. District Court last week diverged on what happened when Sullivan and his partner, Sgt. Peter Albano, stopped Walker, 15, and two friends on their bikes on that night.

Witnesses said the officers stopped the boys as they emerged from an auto sales parking lot on East Columbus Avenue just after 10 p.m. The officers were on a special detail to combat a rash of car break-ins downtown that summer. Dominic May, a witness for plaintiff Kissa Owens, Walker's mother, said Sullivan grabbed repeatedly for Walker's throat when he didn't immediately terminate a cell phone call.

May told jurors Sullivan sent Walker spinning back into the path of an oncoming car. Sullivan and Albano testified that Walker was immediately combative with police and began reaching for something in his pocket, then danced backwards into traffic.

The driver of the Toyota Camry that plowed into Walker was not charged.

A lawsuit filed by Owens in 2012 alleged civil rights violations including excessive force, reckless intent, false arrest, assault and battery and wrongful death. Jurors found in favor of the plaintiff on the matters of the civil rights violations, reckless intent and assault and battery. It found in favor of Sullivan on the false arrest and wrongful death counts.

The jury returned its unanimous verdict just after 3 p.m. When the damages were announced, a silence fell over the courtroom. Walker's family and supporters filled half the gallery throughout the trial.

"I wouldn't say 'I won," Owens, of Springfield, said after the verdict. "Nothing will bring my son back. 'I won' would be my son walking through the door. I would say justice was served."

Owens was the final plaintiff's witness to testify. She told jurors the last time she heard her son's voice was over the phone when he assured her he would be home soon.

"Maybe this will set the new standard for the police - not only for my son but all the ones who come after him," Owens said.

Plaintiff's attorneys David Hoose and Luke Ryan said the jury's message was more important than the award.

"The number is less important. The fact that a jury of nine people from Western Massachusetts found that Delano Walker's civil rights were violated by the police was just a huge statement to me," Hoose said. "The testimony the police gave at this trial showed an appalling lack of understanding of what justifies a lawful stop."

The jury's award was the largest in, at least, the city's recent history. The fact that the the plaintiff prevailed on the federal civil rights claim also entitles Owens' lawyers to attorney's fees.

Sullivan, a 16-year-veteran of the police force, declined to comment after the verdict.

"We're exploring all of our legal remedies," his attorney, Kevin Coyle, said afterward.

Another lawyer for the city immediately called the mayor's office after the jury and U.S. District Judge Mark G. Mastroianni filed out of the courtroom.

Mayor Domenic J. Sarno extended his condolences to Walker's family.

"At this juncture we will take stock of our legal options and mostly likely appeal the verdict," Sarno said through a spokesman.

The family of Benjamin Schoolfield received approximately $700,000 after the unarmed 20-year-old black motorist was shot by police in 1994. Another motorist, Melvin Jones III, received a $575,000 settlement from the city after he was severely beaten by former patrolman Jeffrey Asher during a traffic stop in 2009. That incident was caught on amateur video.