PITTSBURGH — A federal jury on Tuesday awarded $28 million to the father of an unarmed 12-year-old boy fatally shot in the back by state troopers as he ran away from a cornered stolen vehicle.

The jury found both troopers intentionally shot Michael Ellerbe during the Christmas Eve 2002 chase in Uniontown. The verdict contradicted the troopers' claim that only one of them shot Ellerbe — and then only because the officer believed his partner had been shot by Ellerbe.

Attorneys for the boy's father, Michael Hickenbottom, said the verdict and trial testimony should be the basis for renewed investigations into the shooting.

Troopers Samuel Nassan and Juan Curry "lied, covered up, fabricated in order to avoid responsibility, and those in power went along with it," said Michigan civil rights attorney Geoffrey Fieger, one of Hickenbottom's attorneys.

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 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."

The troopers' attorney, Andrew Fletcher, promised an appeal.

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

The jury awarded $4 million for Ellerbe's pain and suffering, $12 million for each trooper's use of excessive force, and $4,058 for burial expenses. Damages will eventually be paid by the state police, she said.

The Pennsylvania State Troopers Association called the verdict "an incredible injustice."

Nassan and Curry shouldn't be held liable for making "a split-second decision ... when it appeared one trooper had been shot. ... These are good men and good troopers who have risked their lives time and time again to keep our communities safe," the association said in a statement.

Defense attorneys said the jury also rejected police claims that Ellerbe was driving the stolen SUV before the foot chase, another element on which the two sides couldn't agree. Witnesses said they saw someone else at the wheel and that Ellerbe was clearly unarmed and sprinting away from police when he was shot.

Celebrity pathologist Cyril Wecht testified for the troopers during a break in his own criminal fraud trial. Wecht said one bullet pierced the boy's spine, aorta and pulmonary artery before exiting and grazing his left arm.

The jury instead accepted the scenario put forth by the plaintiff's expert, who said one bullet caused the fatal wounds while a second shot grazed Ellerbe's arm.