The Austin City Council decided Thursday if the family of a man shot by a police officer in 2009 should get hundreds of thousands of dollars from the city.

City Council has rejected the settlement by 4:3 vote and the case is set to go to trial.

In executive session, the council discussed the proposal to offer Nathaniel Sanders' family $750,000 after the 18-year-old was shot and killed by former APD officer Leonardo Quintana. While Quintana was dismissed from the force for an unrelated drunken driving incident in January, the lawsuit still stands against him, and thus, the city. 

Thursday, Mayor Lee Leffingwell spoke to KEYE TV before the council's first executive session about the settlement.

"I am leaning to oppose the $750,000 settlement," Leffingwell said.  "I believe it indicates the city is agreeing that it was an unjustified shooting. I think that's for a court to decide.  Others have said already that it is not," the Mayor said.

Late Thursday morning, the Austin Police Accountability Coalition held a rally outside of city hall to call on change within the police department in order to hold police officers accountable for their actions.  The coalition said they remain neutral on the settlement, but insist justice must be served to the Sanders family.

"We're working to change [the] system to renegotiate the contract the police union has with the city so that we have a better system of police oversight and accountability, which we do not see functioning very well right now," said coalition member Tane Ward.

But Wayne Vincent, president of the Austin Police Association, said the system works properly.

"We've heard the broken system before and sometimes that gets confused there are groups that want the system to agree with them all the time," said Vincent.  "That doesn't mean the system is broken.  Everything can always use some improvement.  But an accountability system to the police officers, that is not broken."

Vincent believed the city council's vote will be a close one and at a 4:3 vote he was right.

The mayor knows several council members support the settlement. "I know there are several who intend to support it and I support their right to their opinions," Leffingwell said.  "I understand their opinions and we just happen to disagree in this case."

>> Read a timeline of the case.