Civil rights suit in fatal shooting of unarmed man

SAN JOSE >> A federal civil rights lawsuit is being filed against the city of San Jose over the January death of an unarmed man who was shot and killed by officers looking to arrest him in a South County homicide, according to attorneys and the man’s family.

Attorneys Adante Pointer and Patrick Buelna were joined by David Tovar Jr.’s relatives at an April 7 news conference at San Jose City Hall to detail the lawsuit, which names the city of San Jose as a defendant and claims due process violations and wrongful death from the Jan. 21 shooting.

Besides looking to keep a spotlight on the assertion that Tovar, a 27-year-old Gilroy resident, did not pose a deadly threat to the officers pursuing him, the plaintiffs want more attention paid to how a police dog was sent after a mortally wounded Tovar.

“They made a conscious decision to release a police K-9 on his dying body,” Buelna said.

After an officer described what looked like a butt of a gun, three other officers shot at least a dozen rounds at Tovar as he ran along a second-floor walkway of the Villa Fairlane apartments in the city’s east foothills.

About five minutes of footage excerpted from four body cameras — a K-9 officer also was present — and released last month by police show a rapidly unfolding scene in which the three officers who shot at Tovar opened fire within seconds of seeing him.

In announcing the suit, the attorneys reiterated community concerns that the officers’ gunfire threatened the lives of residents inside their apartments just footsteps away from where Tovar was shot.

“Officers recklessly fired these assault weapons, and struck and riddled this apartment complex with bullets,” Pointer said.