PITTSBURGH -- In the wrongful death lawsuit against two state police troopers, a federal jury in Pittsburgh decided a 12-year-old boy was intentionally shot in the back as he ran from the scene of a stolen car crash.

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After three days of deliberations, the jury decided that Troopers Samuel Nassan and Juan Curry used unreasonable force and acted maliciously in the fatal shooting of Michael Ellerbe.

Ellerbe's father, Michael Hickenbottom, was awarded $28 million of the $50 million he was seeking in the suit. Also, the jury awarded Hickenbottom an additional $4,058 for Fourth Amendment violations.

Ellerbe was shot in the back while running from the police, who had stopped him in a stolen SUV in Uniontown on Dec. 24, 2002.

The jury awarded $4 million for Ellerbe's pain and suffering and $12 million for each trooper's use of excessive force.

Hickenbottom filed the suit accusing Nassan and Curry of excessive force and other offenses, after a coroner's inquest cleared the two men of criminal wrongdoing.

"An enormously disappointing verdict," said defense attorney Andrew Fletcher. "In our view, not at all supported by the evidence. We stand behind Nassan and Curry. Their actions that day were made under tense, uncertain, rapidly evolving circumstances."

"After five years, my baby has been vindicated," Hickenbottom said on Tuesday. "I cried. I cried for my baby. I could not hold my baby in his pain and suffering."

Fletcher said they plan to file an appeal in the case. But when asked about Curry and Nassan's futures as state troopers, he declined to comment.

But state police spokeswoman, Cpl. Linette Quinn, said the troopers remain employed in good standing.

"Trooper Nassan has been consistent throughout that he made the decision to shoot under those circumstances because he believed his partner had been shot," said Fletcher.

Attorney Geoffrey Fieger was asking the jury for more than $50 million in damages to punish troopers for allegedly covering up how the shooting occurred.

Fieger said state police failed in what he calls a cover-up attempt.

"Operated almost like a little Gestapo Agency, in which they lied, covered up, fabricated in order to avoid responsibility," said Fieger.

Despite winning the judgment, Hickenbottom said he is not satisfied because of unanswered questions.

"The main one is the why," said Hickenbottom. "Why did you shoot?"

A statement issued by the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association on Tuesday, read:

"Everyone agrees this case was a tragedy, but today's verdict adds another sad chapter. This is an incredible injustice. Trooper Samuel Nassan and Cpl. Juan Curry were cleared of any wrongdoing … This horrible accident happened because they were pursuing an unknown assailant who had stolen a vehicle and was fleeing from police -- a felony crime. These troopers should not be held liable because a split-second decision was made when it appeared one trooper had been shot. They did not know it was a 12-year-old. These are good men and good troopers who have risked their lives time and time again to keep our communities safe."

In a statement, U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan said on Tuesday she would "review the transcript of the civil trial to determine whether reopening the federal criminal investigation is warranted."

Fayette County District Attorney Nancy Vernon, however, said she is confident the state police and FBI did a proper job and that another criminal investigation isn't needed.

Vernon also said witnesses who surfaced after the earlier investigations -- and who cast doubt on the police account during the trial -- were not reliable.

"I again express my deepest sympathy to those who loved Michael Ellerbe," Vernon said. "His death was indeed a tragedy. It is significant that he was not at home on Christmas Eve anxiously awaiting the next day. Instead, Michael was on the streets engaging in an adult crime and facing adult consequences."

In his closing argument on Thursday morning, Fieger described the boy as "target acquisition" and said he was "dehumanized" by the troopers.

"We give power to police, and in this case they abused it," Fieger said. "We will never tolerate this behavior. It's unacceptable in a civilized society. You can never shoot a child. He was no danger to them. You chased a little boy into a back yard and you shot him."

Though Ellerbe was unarmed, Nassan said he thought the boy had a weapon, because he was running with one hand in his pocket.

Fieger told jurors, "All of his life ultimately came down to a minute to two minutes of agony of being drowned in his own blood, paralyzed from the waist down."

Nassan testified that he fired his gun after hearing a shot and seeing Curry fall while climbing a fence, thinking that Curry had been fired on. But Curry was not shot, and said his gun had gone off accidentally while going over the fence.

Nassan and Curry acted appropriately under the circumstances of the chase, which was a "rapid, tense and unpredictable" situation, according to the closing argument by the defense.

There was an immediate response by 22 police officers, EMTs and firefighters who worked on Ellerbe and secured the scene, defense attorney Andrew Fletcher said.

Also, the shell casings matched the weapons and the troopers' accounts of the incident, the defense said.

Curry's pants were ripped, his knees were bloody and his hand was injured, proving that he got hung up on the fence, Fletcher said.

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