Hayward settles on $3.3M over lawsuit
City to pay family of father of two who was killed by police
Karla Gonsalez knew her son struggled with depression.
When she did not hear from him for hours and hours that fateful November in 2018, she occasionally flicked on her phone, looking for a message. But she was not very concerned.
Then Hayward police contacted the family: Officers had shot and killed Agustin Gonsalez, 29, a father of two, while investigating a report that he was on the street acting strangely and brandishing what appeared to be a knife.
“I was just frozen,” Karla Gonsalez said. “I did not believe it was my son.”
The Hayward City Council voted unanimously in a closed session Tuesday to award Gonsalez’s family $3.3 million as a lawsuit settlement — a decision that came just hours after Hayward police shot and killed another man who allegedly struck officers’ vehicles with his own during a robbery investigation.
The council’s action also settled a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of Agustin Gonsalez’s relatives.
The amount of money means nothing when compared with their loss, his mother said Thursday, sometimes crying and physically shaking as she talked about her only son “Augie,” who is also survived by a sister.
“If the room was quiet, he would be the one cracking a joke,” Karla Gonsalez said. “We just never knew what would come out of his mouth to make us laugh.”
Her son enjoyed the family’s annual trips to Disneyland at Christmas. He was an avid fan of the Oakland A’s and other Bay Area sports teams. He worked at the Tesla factory in Fremont. And he left behind children — a son, now age 12, and an 11-year-old daughter.
“His kids are going to endure this for the rest of their lives, growing up without a father,” his cousin, Cynthia Nunes, said at a news conference Thursday called by Oakland attorney John Burris, whose law firm negotiated the settlement with Hayward.
“My cousin Augie was a human being and a father who deserved to see his children grow up,” Nunes said.
About a dozen family members were on hand for the conference, most wearing black T-shirts featuring an image of Agustin Gonsalez and the words “In Loving Memory.”
The suit brought by Burris and Ben Nisenbaum of the Burris law firm alleged that Hayward police Officers Phillip Wooley and Michael Clark wrongfully killed Agustin Gonsalez by using deadly force under unjustified circumstances.
They argued that he could have been restrained or taken into custody without lethal force, such as through tasing him.
Agustin Gonsalez, who lived in Lathrop, approached officers as they responded to a 911 call that someone was carrying a knife in the 24600 block of Oneil Avenue, police said. His former girlfriend lived in the neighborhood, which was why he apparently was in the area.
The 911 caller, a nearby resident, said Agustin Gonsalez was threatening him with what he thought was a knife.
Police body camera footage shows him walking quickly toward an officer with both hands clasped together in from of him. “Put the knife down. Put the knife down. Put it down. Stop,” an officer shouted as Agustin Gonsalez continued approaching, then gunfire erupted.
He was holding “a small, standard-size safety razor,” not a knife, an investigation into his death revealed, according to court documents.
Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley
decided that no criminal charges would be brought against the two officers.
Agustin Gonsalez suffered 14 gunshot wounds. But it was unclear how many bullets struck him, a report from the DA said. Some bullets may have hit him more than once after ricocheting off the ground.
His family, which lives in Lathrop, maintains he was undergoing a mental health crisis and that police opened fire unnecessarily.
The death led to angry protests from dozens of family, friends and supporters of Agustin Gonsalez, including during a Hayward council meeting in November 2019, when they forced
the council to move from its open chambers to a private conference room to continue its meeting amid the raucous demonstration.
Karla Gonsalez accused police and city officials of continually stonewalling the family as it sought details about the shooting. They were in emotional turmoil, she said, for almost three days, hearing her son was shot and perhaps dead, and yet they could not get any information about his whereabouts.
“The settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing, but in this case, is a means of helping to support and meet the economic needs of two children who tragically
lost their father,” the city said in a statement.
Hayward City Attorney Michael Lawson did not respond to a request for comment.
Burris said the high financial settlement stemmed from the fact that Agustin Gonsalez was young, was employed and was the father of two young children, leaving them without income, as well as because of the children’s emotional loss.
One of the most disturbing aspects of the case, Burris said, was that the officers could have used a stun gun or taken steps to de-escalate the confrontation but chose fire their weapons.
“That’s why this family is
so pained,” he said. “It did not have to happen.”
Following the death of Agustin Gonsalez, the city adopted a policy that calls for all police shootings to be referred to the state attorney general for investigation on top of any investigations by Hayward police and the Alameda County district attorney.
“We are going to have to live with this for the rest of our lives,” said Agustin Gonsalez’s father, Augustin Gonsalez Jr., who sometimes held his wife’s hand during the news conference as she fought back tears.