PITTSBURGH — The city of Pittsburgh was spared Monday from paying damages on behalf of its former police chief and a commander over a road rage incident in which a man says he was attacked by a detective with a history of complaints who was later fired.

Detective Bradley Walker has already been convicted of pulling a gun, breaking the windows of the car of Jarret Fate and choking him during an off-duty accident in 2010. Walker wasn’t part of the lawsuit that a jury ruled on Monday.

The jury was asked to decide only whether Walker was acting as a city officer even though he was off duty when the accident and attack happened and, if so, whether the city and his superiors were responsible because of their allegedly lax oversight given Walker’s history. Former Chief Nate Harper and Commander George Trosky, Walker’s supervisor at the time, were sued, along with the city.

Fate accidentally hit the rear of Walker’s car while changing lanes on Interstate 376 on May 1, 2010. Fate pulled over to exchange insurance information and says Walker attacked him. Walker, a plainclothes officer, was driving his son to work but had on his gun and, Fate claims, flashed his badge.

Walker, 46, was convicted of charges including simple assault, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief at a trial in which he acknowledged angrily confronting Fate but denied assaulting or pointing his weapon at him.

Fate’s attorney, Josh Autry, had argued in the lawsuit that the encounter might have been avoided had the city fired Walker and taken away his gun after a series of previous violent incidents, some of them involving his immediate family and other officers.

Walker had 30 excessive force misconduct complaints lodged against him during his 14-year career, several of which, Autry told the jury, were found to be accurate, including one in which he beat his wife and choked their son, and another in which he punched a fellow officer, both in 2007. Walker was suspended one day for each of those, but Harper testified Walker wasn’t fired because his superiors, instead, sought to control his outbursts and make him a better officer.

The jury’s finding Monday was seen as a clear victory for the city.

“It had been our position from the beginning that he was acting as a private citizens, he was acting very inappropriately as a private citizen, but as a private citizen nonetheless,” city attorney Michael Kennedy said.