Settlement

driver-side door of the police car, and police said Wood said he intended to get a shotgun stored in the center of the vehicle.

The next moments are in dispute between police and the plaintiff. Police contend that after Wood tried to pry the shotgun free, he turned around, prompting Morales to shoot him out of fear he was holding the weapon. Wood’s attorneys insist that it was clear he did not get hold of the shotgun and turned around “with his arms and hands in plain view.”

Wood was shot four times, once in the chest and three times in the stomach, and fell to the ground. Soon after, backup officers arrived.

Police said Wood was unresponsive to officers’ commands to show his hands, which the lawsuit argues was because the suspect was injured. The plaintiff attorneys took issue with Sgt. Darrell Unger reportedly ordering Officer Mark Minten to fire a 40 mm rubber bullet at Wood to get him to comply to their orders.

The lawsuit asserts that Morales, knowing the shotgun was not loaded, should have moved away and waited for backup, and that the ensuing force used — the pepper spray, Taser, rubber bullet and gunfire — was unreasonable, particularly given that Wood was experiencing a mental-health crisis.

A Santa Clara County civil grand jury report issued earlier this year noted that as much as 40 percent of officer-involved shootings involve subjects in mentalhealth distress. In response to the growing issue, county is launching two mobile crisis-response teams, one in East San Jose and another in South County, consisting of two mental-health professionals who can respond to corresponding emergencies at the request of dispatchers or police officers.

The county is also using grant money to establish a Psychological Emergency Response Team in Palo Alto that will pair a police officer and clinician to respond to mental-health incidents with teens and other young adults.

In addressing the Wood case, Doyle alluded to the challenge these scenarios present, where officers must de-escalate these crises while being mindful of their own safety. He also wrote, in a memo to the City Council elaborating the rationale for the settlement, that “it has become difficult to predict jury trial results in cases involving unarmed suspects and potential mental health issues.”