The metropolis of San Diego has agreed to pay $30 million to the household of a 16-year-old boy who was fatally shot by a San Diego police officer whereas the teenager was operating away from gunshots fired by one other particular person.
The household’s attorneys say is believed to be the most important settlement stemming from a police killing in U.S. historical past, it was introduced Friday.
Konoa Wilson’s dad and mom sued town and the officer who shot him, San Diego Police Officer Daniel Gold, in reference to the teenager’s capturing loss of life on the evening of Jan. 28.
According to the household’s lawsuit, the boy was fleeing gunshots fired at him by one other particular person when he encountered Gold, who shot the boy twice within the again “immediately, with none warning.” Konoa was pronounced useless at a hospital lower than an hour later.
Attorneys representing the teenager’s household say the lately reached settlement determine eclipses the earlier largest police killing settlement of $27 million paid out by Minneapolis to the household of George Floyd.
The settlement quantity was disclosed in a San Diego City Council agenda posted on Friday and shall be formally thought-about by the council Tuesday. Representatives for town couldn’t be reached late Friday afternoon for remark.
“What occurred to Konoa was a catastrophic failure of policing,” the Wilson household’s legal professional, Nick Rowley, mentioned in a press release. “A 16-year-old boy was operating for his life. He was not a menace and never a suspect, but he was shot within the again by a police officer who solely noticed him for one second earlier than deciding to tug the set off.”
In Santa Fe Depot trolley station surveillance footage launched by the police division earlier this 12 months, Konoa could be seen operating after one other particular person pulls out a gun and opens hearth on him on the station’s west platform.
Gold and one other officer had been within the space responding to an unrelated report of an assault when the gunshots rang out.
The boy could be seen operating down a hall main out of the station and rising on Kettner Boulevard simply as Gold was operating in direction of the identical hall.
Body-worn digicam footage exhibits the officer instantly hearth on the teenager at shut vary. Rowley mentioned Gold shot the boy “earlier than he even introduced who he was.”
After he was shot, the video exhibits the boy screaming and operating briefly earlier than collapsing. Officers then started performing CPR on him and, whereas doing so, discovered a handgun hid underneath the youth’s clothes close to his proper thigh, in response to police.
There had been no indications within the video that the teenager fired his gun in the course of the incident or was holding it when Gold, a two-year member of the police division, opened hearth on him.
Rowley mentioned the boy had the gun for self-defense, as a result of he had lately been focused and assaulted by gang members. The legal professional mentioned the gun was not believed to be loaded, however extra importantly, was not brandished when he was shot.
“This settlement brings some semblance of accountability, however not closure,” Rowley’s assertion continued. “You don’t get closure when your youngster is shot within the again for doing nothing unsuitable by the people who find themselves alleged to be defending him.
“We hope that Konoa’s story will ship a message throughout the nation: Cities pays dearly when officers violate the legislation and take a life with out justification. We anticipate town of San Diego to make sure this by no means occurs once more.”
The boy was killed three months shy of his seventeenth birthday. In a press release, attorneys mentioned he was “an solely youngster, and his dad and mom misplaced their solely son.”
Police mentioned the one that fired gunshots at Konoa — described solely as a 16-year-old juvenile — was arrested simply over per week later.
