DA clears cops who shot, killed mentally ill Walnut Creek man
Decision comes two weeks after DA charged Danville cop
Nearly two years after two police officers here shot and killed a city resident who was experiencing a mental health crisis, the Contra Costa district attorney has released a report clearing both officers of criminal wrongdoing.
The report found that Walnut Creek Officers K.C. Hsiao and Melissa Murphy were acting in selfdefense when they shot Miles Hall, a 23-year-old man who suffered from mental illness. The report closes a nearly two-year investigation by the office of DA Diana Becton into the controver
sial shooting, which occurred June 2, 2019, after members of Halls’ family called police to report that he was having a mental health crisis.
“The evidence shows that Officers Murphy and Hsiao acted in what each of them actually and reasonably believed to be self-defense and defense of others,” the report said. “The examined evidence does not support the contention that the shooting of Hall was criminal.”
In a family statement, the Halls said the officers “acted recklessly and should have been criminally charged,” and that they will take their case to both the California attorney general and the U.S. Department of Justice.
“The officers’ wildly distorted depictions of the incident that took Miles’ life directly contradict the record established by officers’ own body cameras and other video footage, as well as by eyewitness accounts,” the family statement said. “Miles posed no threat to officers as he attempted to run to the safety of his home. The officers fired lethal weapons with wanton disregard for his life. They flouted their responsibility to de-escalate at the scene. They escalated to gunfire within moments instead of following their department’s own protocols for interactions with people in a mental health crisis.”
In a statement, Walnut Creek interim Police Chief Dan Pratt said that the department “always attempts to de-escalate situations before they lead to injury or death, and our officers took necessary action only after numerous attempts to stop Mr. Hall from advancing.”
In a subsequent interview with this news organization, Pratt referred to the actions by police officers as “split-second decisions.”
According to the 44page report, before police made contact with Hall, they conferred and discussed the fact that he suffered from mental illness. Sgt. Holley Connors, who responded to the scene, reportedly told others, “I’m not gonna give this guy a lot of chances …because he’s got a weapon, he’s going to the neighbor’s homes, he’s lost his mind.
“Just letting you know, the line in the sand for me is very close to him, so any forward motion, any aggressive movement, we’re going to start here,” Connors continued, “If he advances after the talking … I want you to give commands like, drop it, drop it, drop it whatever … and then Taser, if that’s appropriate. Otherwise, we’ll just, just watch your backdrop.”
Pratt declined to comment on the briefing that the report described.
As the officers arrived on the street where Hall was, carrying his digging tool that was described in the report as a nearly 5-foot metal bar, police officers called to him to “come here,” the report notes, citing police body camera audio.
At 5:08 p.m., the report notes, police Officer Matt Smith yelled out, “Miles, come here!”
Seconds later, Hall ran in their direction, the officers then yelled for him to stop. As he kept running, Smith filed multiple beanbag rounds at him, and Murphy fired one round from her handgun “almost immediately” after the third beanbag round had been fired. Hsiao fired four shots at Hall, and Murphy fired one more shot — a total of six shots fired toward Hall.The officers later told investigators they feared for their safety, with Murphy saying Hall was “too close for comfort” as he ran with a metal digging tool in his hand.
Hall’s family has said it believes he was trying to run past officers and toward his house.
Previous encounters
Walnut Creek police — including officers who responded to the June 2019 call — had several previous encounters with Hall, who had a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, including four incidents in 2018 in which they were called to intervene after Hall exhibited erratic behavior.
Hall’s mother, Taun Hall, also had warned both police and neighbors about her son’s struggles with mental illness at least a year prior to his death. She said police had encouraged her to call for help in a crisis and indicated they would handle it appropriately. She did exactly that the day before his death, calling Officer Tammy Keagy — who had experience with Halls’ mental health episodes — to let her know that he had started acting unusual again.
But Hall’s family says police didn’t stick to any plans to de-escalate.
“It failed our son; it failed us,” Taun Hall said of the Police Department’s shooting of her son.
Last September, Walnut Creek paid $4 million to settle a lawsuit brought by civil rights attorney John Burris on behalf of Hall’s family, alleging that officers did not properly deescalate the encounter despite knowing Hall suffered from mental illness.
“Police could have been sent out front of the home to contain him when he got there,” Burris said Friday. “But yelling and screaming is not the way to go — calming him down is important.”
The Hall family pointed to the families of other young men killed by police, some of whom attended the Friday rally in support. Family members spoke about Angelo Quinto, who was killed by police in Antioch just months ago; Oscar Grant, who was killed by police at an Oakland BART station in 2009; and Stephon Clark, who was killed by police in Sacramento in 2018.
Just two weeks ago, at a news conference, Becton announced she was charging Contra Costa Sheriff’s Deputy Andrew Hall with voluntary manslaughter in the killing of Newark resident Laudemer Arboleda, 32, whom the deputy shot and killed during a slowspeed chase through the streets of Danville. In that incident, video footage showed Andrew Hall — who is not related to Miles Hall — running around his patrol car and placing himself in from of Arboleda’s car, then firing as he backpedaled out of the way of the oncoming sedan.
Taun Hall, gesturing to them gathered outside Walnut Creek City Hall Friday and referencing the others — mostly young men of color — emphasized her desire for change.
“This is happening all the time.”