A California county agreed to pay $4.5 million to the family of a mentally ill homeless man who was killed by a sheriff's deputy in a 30-second confrontation.
The lawsuit settlement, reported Thursday by the Bay Area News Group, involves the March 2021 shooting of Tyrell Wilson in Danville in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Wilson refused to drop a knife he was holding but didn't approach the deputy before he was shot in the face, according to body camera footage released by the Sheriff's Department.
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The deputy, Andrew Hall, also shot and killed another mentally ill man in 2018 during a slow-speed car chase in Danville. Hall had stood in front of the vehicle and fired 10 shots through the windshield and passenger side window. Hall told investigators he was afraid Laudemer Arboleda, 33, would run him down.
Arboleda was unarmed. Last fall, Contra Costa County agreed to pay $4.9 million to settle a federal lawsuit filed by Arboleda's family.
Hall also was convicted of felony assault with a firearm and earlier this month he was sentenced to six years in prison.
A Contra Costa County judge said evidence showed that Arboleda was driving 6 mph (10kph) as he tried to evade Hall, who fired a barrage of bullets that violated his own training and put fellow officers in danger.
An attorney said Wilson's family will press for criminal charges against Hall for that shooting.
“This is just the first step,” John Burris said Thursday. “It’s difficult to put a value on a human life, as we know. But to the extent that lives are taken, wrongfully, by officers, then the family should be justly compensated for it.”
