The city of Long Beach has agreed to pay $2 million to settle a pair of lawsuits filed by the family of a mentally ill Carson man who was shot to death by a police officer at an arcade in 2015.

Police said they fired on Mharloun Verdejo Saycon, 39, because he refused to drop a knife inside the Looff’s Lite-A-Line gaming parlor, but his family said Saycon was never a threat to anyone.

In court documents, Saycon’s parents said he was watching TV with the knife sitting in his lap when officers arrived around 10 p.m. They alleged the officers escalated the situation, because they were ill-equipped to handle someone with a mental illness such as Saycon, who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

The settlement, authorized by the City Council in November and finalized last month, puts an end to the state and federal lawsuits, said Howard Russell, a deputy city attorney for Long Beach. Russell said the city did not admit any fault as part of the agreement.

An attorney representing Saycon’s family didn’t return a call Tuesday.

Saycon was a regular at Looff’s Lite-A-Line, on Long Beach Boulevard just south of Willow Street, his family has said. That night, according to court documents, he had a small folding knife that he’d shown another customer and used to scratch a gaming table. A manager asked him to leave, but he refused, prompting the staff to call police, according to the lawsuits.

While officers were en route to the arcade, city officials said, he waved the knife around, with some customers leaving the arcade in fear. When the officers arrived, they ordered Saycon to drop the knife, police said, and when he would not, officers used a Taser and a baton. At some point, an officer shot Saycon in the chest, arm and abdomen, according to court papers. He died at the arcade.

Contrary to the lawsuits’ claims, police were trying to deescalate the situation, according to the union that represents the department’s rank-and-file.

“No officer wishes to discharge their weapon, but they were clearly attempting to put themselves between the innocent public and what they thought was a danger,” said Jim Foster, president of the Long Beach Police Officers Association.

“When the police came, they came with guns drawn, they never asked a simple question, they immediately started to brutally beat him with their batons,” attorney Dan Stormer said during a 2016 press conference announcing that the family would sue. “Then they backed off and opened fire, killing him within seconds of their arrival. At no time did he get out of his seat. At no time did he move.”

Staff writer Andrew Edwards contributed to this report.