Settlement near for family of slain Red Sox fan

BOSTON – The city is close to reaching a multimillion dollar settlement with the parents of a college student killed by a pepper-spray pellet fired by police during Red Sox celebrations last fall, Mayor Thomas Menino said Sunday.

The payment to the parents of 21-year-old Victoria Snelgrove, who was a senior at Emerson College, will be between $4 million and $7 million, Menino told reporters.

“The heartache will never be over, no question about that, but to come to a settlement so the family can move on, I’d like to see it happen,” Menino said.

Snelgrove died hours after being hit in the eye socket with a pepper-spray pellet during a raucous celebration outside Fenway Park after the Red Sox beat the New York Yankees to win the A.L. pennant on Oct. 21. She was among 80,000 revelers.

Two other people were injured by pepper-spray pellets but survived.

“Sometime in the near future we will have an agreement,” the mayor said.

It hasn’t been decided yet whether criminal charges are warranted against the officers who fired the pellets.