Facts

It was Officer Chris Samayoa's fourth day of field training with the San Francisco Police Department, and Officer Edric Talusan was assigned as his training officer. While at the police station, Taluson received a call for service regarding a carjacking. Talusan did not learn from the dispatch call how the vehicle was taken, and did not hear any report that the suspect had a weapon. He took a patrol car with Samayoa, and told him that they were responding to a carjacking call. While en route to meet the victim and take a report, Talusan heard respond units imply that they were following a suspect vehicle that matched the stolen vehicle's description and decided to assist. When Talusan saw a van he believed to be the suspect vehicle, he followed, activating his lights and siren. During this time, Talusan did not brief Samayoa on the situation or what he expected to happen. Talusan continued to follow the van, as it exceeded speed limits and ran through intersections without stopping at stop signs, until it swerved to the right and hit a parked car. At this point, Talusan advised Samayoa that the case might end on foot, but did not tell Samayoa what to do if that happened. Then, Samayoa drew his gun and raised it to the window as they approached the van. The driver of the van, Keita "Iggy" O'Neil, jumped out the door while the van was still moving, turned to his left, and began running towards the officers. As Keita sprinted in the direction of the officers, his hands were down by his waist. Then, as Keita ran past the patrol car, Samayoa shot and killed him from the passenger seat of the car. Keita was unarmed. Judy O'Neil brought a civil action against the City and County of San Francisco, Christopher Samayoa, and Samayoa's training officer, Edric Talusan, for the loss of her son.

PLAINTIFFS' CONTENTIONS: Plaintiffs contended that a reasonable officer in Samayoa's position would not have believed that Keita posed a threat because there was no direct evidence that he reached towards his waistband in a manner that could reasonably be mistaken for reaching for a gun under the circumstances of the shooting. Furthermore, the officers had no reasonable basis to believe Keita had a gun because the radio dispatcher stated that the carjacking suspect had no weapon. As to Talusan, he failed to intervene when his trainee used excessive force on Keita. Plaintiff Judy O'Neil asserted that in killing plaintiff O'Neil, defendant Samayoa deprived her of her right to a familial relationship with her son under the Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause. Plaintiffs also asserted that defendant city deprived plaintiff O'Neil of rights secured by the Constitution because plaintiff O'Neil's injury stemmed from a custom or policy of the defendant city.

DEFENDANTS' CONTENTIONS: Defendants denied all contentions. On the day of the shooting, Keita had been suspected of assaulting a state lottery worker and stealing her government-issued minivan. He then led the officers on a chase before ending up surrounded by patrol cars on a dead-end street. Samayoa was a rookie who was on his fourth day on the job. Defendants contended that Samayoa's use of force was reasonable because Keita had already run several feet directly towards the officers after jumping out of his van, and that reasonable officers would consider Keita an immediate threat to their safety. Also, Samayoa was entitled to qualified immunity because he reasonably feared that the Keita was reaching for a gun as he ran in Samayoa's direction.

Result

The case settled for $2,500,000.

Other Information

In November 2020, San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, charged Samayoa with manslaughter, a case that remains pending.

Deliberation

U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph Spero found that a jury would be better suited to determine whether Samayoa acted reasonably or with excessive force since neither the surveillance camera footage nor Samayoa's body camera video offered a clear picture of what O'Neil did with his hands when he dashed from the stolen van. Judge Spero did rule in favor of the City with the claims involving Samayoa's training officer, Talusan, finding no evidence that he would be required to intervene to prevent the shooting given that Talusan did not know whether Samayoa would shoot or if O'Neil might take action that would justify deadly force.