Cop shooting payouts OKd
L.A. County approves nearly $5 million for the families of two men fatally shot by deputies in 2014.
Expensive payouts stemming from shootings by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies continue to climb, with the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approving nearly $5 million for the families of two men shot by deputies in separate incidents.
In both 2014 incidents, deputies’ gunfire killed people — and wounded unintended victims.
Jose Hernandez, the victim of a knife attack, was mistakenly shot in the leg as lawmen fired 34 shots at another man wielding a blade. In the other case, Noel Aguilar was shot and killed just after a deputy inadvertently shot his fellow officer in the stomach as they struggled to hold Aguilar facedown on the ground.
The payments — $2 million to Hernandez and his son and $2.97 million to Aguilar’s family — come at a time of soaring deputy-related litigation costs. Last fiscal year, payouts to resolve such legal claims cost the county nearly $51 million, a 65% jump from the previous year. The expenditures have climbed steadily over the last few years. In the fiscal year that ended in 2012, law enforcement-related payouts were $5.6 million.
Aguilar was riding his bicycle in Long Beach on May 26, 2014, when he glanced at uniformed deputies and quickly pedaled away. Deputies Albert Murad and Jose Ruiz, who later told investigators they believed Aguilar was carrying a gun, chased the 23-year-old and wrestled him to the ground, handcuffing one of his wrists, according to a memorandum filed by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.
Early in the struggle, which a bystander captured on video, Murad retrieved a loaded firearm from Aguilar, the memo said. But moments later, according to the memo, Ruiz believed Aguilar was reaching for a gun, and he fired at Aguilar’s belly. Ruiz hit his fellow deputy instead. As the struggle continued, Aguilar reached for Ruiz’s gun and was fatally shot by both deputies, the memo said.
Murad, the injured deputy, is now back at work, sheriff ’s officials said.
In a federal lawsuit, Aguilar’s family argued that he never threatened the deputies with a gun.
“The settlement to the family it makes things a little bit better, but it doesn’t change the fact that they lost a loved one,” said Humberto Guizar, an attorney for Aguilar’s family. “No amount of money change that.”
The other payout stems from an incident on Oct. 4, 2014, when deputies responded to a call about an assault with a deadly weapon. Hernandez’s face had been sliced by his neighbor, Johnny Martinez, at his residence in Vermont Knolls, according to a memo filed by prosecutors.
Martinez, 28, suffered from schizophrenia, prosecutors said. Martinez swung a long knife at deputies, spurring them to discharge a Taser and pepper spray. When Martinez charged again, deputies fired 34 rounds, killing him, the memo said.
Hernandez was struck in the leg by “an errant bullet or bullet fragment,” according to the report. Hernandez filed a lawsuit, saying his injuries were life-threatening. An attorney for Hernandez did not respond to requests for comment. can