Town 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 working away from gunshots fired by one other particular person, in what 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 Division Officer Daniel Gold, in reference to the teenager’s capturing loss of life on the evening of Jan. 28.
Based on 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 lifeless at a hospital lower than an hour later.
Attorneys representing the teenager’s household say the not too long ago 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 Metropolis Council agenda posted on Friday and will probably 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 lawyer, Nick Rowley, stated in a press release. “A 16-year-old boy was working 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 trolley station surveillance footage launched by the police division earlier this 12 months, Konoa may be seen working after one other particular person pulls out a gun and opens hearth on him on the station’s west platform.
Warning: A few of what you see within the video is likely to be tough to look at. Authorities launched video of a police capturing that killed a 16-year-old boy on Jan. 28.
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 may be seen working down a hall main out of the station and rising on Kettner Boulevard simply as Gold was working in the direction of the identical hall.
Physique-worn digicam footage reveals the officer instantly hearth on the teenager at shut vary. Rowley stated Gold shot the boy “earlier than he even introduced who he was.”
After he was shot, the video reveals the boy screaming and working briefly earlier than collapsing. Officers then started performing CPR on him and, whereas doing so, discovered a handgun hid below the youth’s clothes close to his proper thigh, in accordance with police.
There have 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 stated the boy had the gun for self-defense, as a result of he had not too long ago been focused and assaulted by gang members. The lawyer stated the gun was not believed to be loaded, however extra importantly, was not brandished when he was shot.
The 16-year-old was shot and killed by a police officer final January. On the time, he was fleeing from somebody firing photographs at him on the Sante Fe Depot downtown. NBC 7’s Dave Summers experiences.
“This settlement brings some semblance of accountability, however not closure,” Rowley’s assertion continued. “You do not get closure when your youngster is shot within the again for doing nothing fallacious by the people who find themselves purported to be defending him.
“We hope that Konoa’s story will ship a message throughout the nation: Cities can pay dearly when officers violate the regulation 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 stated he was “an solely youngster, and his dad and mom misplaced their solely son.”
Police stated the one who fired gunshots at Konoa — described solely as a 16-year-old juvenile — was arrested simply over per week later.
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