Ronald Wood was acting erratically and reportedly tried to pull shotgun from patrol car; attorney argues officer knew weapon wasn’t loaded, should have waited for backup
Blog note: this article references a grand jury report on the subject of officer-involved shootings. The media are clearly referencing grand jury reports as sources.
The San Jose City Council approved a $500,000 settlement Tuesday to a man shot multiple times by police after he reportedly tried to wrest a shotgun from a patrol car in 2015.
Ronald Wood, 53, filed a federal excessive force lawsuit against the city after the violent encounter, with his attorneys contending that Officer Daniel Morales should have known that the shotgun was unloaded and had not been unracked when he opened fire.
“This set of circumstances was unfortunate for both our client and the officer involved,” said Josh Jachimowicz, Wood’s attorney. “The resolution of this litigation is fair and takes into account the degree of the city’s liability as well as the impact of Mr. Woods’ future medical needs.”
The city backed Morales, and City Attorney Rick Doyle said the settlement was strictly a pragmatic decision given the fiscal exposure the city faced if Wood prevailed in his lawsuit.
“We still believe the officer acted reasonably in a very difficult situation,” Doyle said. “There’s no admission of liability here, and $500,000 is only a portion of the significant medical expenses they have and will continue to have. This was in the best interests of the city to minimize the potential financial risk of further litigation.”
San Jose police were called around 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 24, 2015 to the Monterey Oaks community to conduct a welfare check on Wood, who was reportedly threatening to kill himself. They eventually found him a mile north near Southlake Drive. When police initially detailed the shooting, they errantly identified Wood as “Woods.”
Officer Morales pulled up to Wood, who had been sitting on a street curb, and talked to him through the passenger-side window of his patrol car. At some point, Wood reached through the window and started rifling through a duffel bag in the front-passenger seat.
So Morales got out and confronted Wood and used pepper spray and a Taser to get Wood away from the car, according to both police and the lawsuit. Wood then walked to the 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 mental-health 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.”
December 12, 2018
The Mercury News
By Robert Salonga
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