Sacramento Report: Lethal Force Reform Cost San Diego

One of San Diego’s former Assembly members authored a landmark reform law that was part of a significant police settlement made earlier this week.

The settlement, approved Tuesday by the City Council, is one of the largest in U.S. history for a police shooting. 

The lawsuit alleged a police officer violated a 2019 use-of-force law written by then-San Diego Assemblymember Shirley Weber that raised California’s standard for police use of deadly force from “reasonable” to “necessary.”

This week, I wanted to take a deeper look into the state law and how Weber, who is now the secretary of state, heralded the legislation.

What Happened

Konoa Wilson, 16, was shot by San Diego Police Officer Daniel Gold on Jan. 28 at the downtown Santa Fe train station.

Surveillance and body camera footage released by the department show Wilson fleeing gunshots from another direction at the station before encountering Gold who fired at him in the back and torso as he was exiting. Wilson was pronounced dead less than half an hour later.

The family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the department in June. The city reached its settlement agreement of $30 million last week, an amount greater than the $27 million the city of Minneapolis agreed to pay to the family of George Floyd.

At the meeting on Tuesday, Councilmember Henry Foster said the police department and Mayor Todd Gloria need to “step up.”

“As the father of a young Black man, this hurts. This could be my son. If only you could understand the fear I feel when my son leaves the house” he said.

Gold, who was hired two years before the shooting, remains employed at the department on an administrative assignment, according to The Associated Press.

What AB 392 Says

California overhauled its use-of-deadly force law in 2019 following the 2018 police shooting of Stephon Clark in Sacramento, marking the first major change to the standard in decades.

It was championed by the ACLU and other civil rights groups at the time for being one of the strictest in the nation on use-of-deadly force, replacing legal precedent set by a series of 1980s Supreme Court decisions that allowed lethal force when “reasonable.” The law changed the standard to allow lethal force by police only “when necessary in defense of human life.”

Police unions and law enforcement groups initially fought the bill, warning that stricter limits on deadly force could prevent officers from making split-second decisions in dangerous situations. Weber negotiated amendments that kept the definition of “necessary” deliberately vague, which led to law enforcement groups dropping their opposition. A companion measure mandated additional use-of-force training for officers statewide.

Weber declined to provide a comment to Voice of San Diego.

What the Lawsuit Alleges

The complaint says Gold violated the department’s standards and state law on use-of-deadly force and that he “committed acts of racial violence” against Wilson, who was Black.

Citing Assembly Bill 392, the law Weber authored, the lawsuit notes the prohibition of the use of deadly force only when “necessary in defense of human life” and under “a reasonable belief the suspect poses an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury.”

It goes on to say that Gold did not announce he was a police officer to Wilson until after firing at him.

“At no point during these events did decedent brandish a weapon nor did he present a threat to the physical safety or well-being of defendant Gold or any other person,” the complaint states.

In Other News

On Thursday, at a joint legislative hearing in the Capitol, senators Catherine Blakespear and Steve Padilla joined San Diego County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre and state officials with the water board to discuss pollution in the Tijuana River.

Calls from local officials to treat the river have grown in recent months, especially from Aguirre, who has placed the environmental crisis at the center of her agenda as county supervisor.

Members of the public, including former San Diego Assemblymember Lori Saldaña, expressed frustration with federal funding and a lack of cooperation between American and Mexican officials to fix failed sewage treatment plants.

“The lack of collaboration across the border is really alarming,” Saldaña said at the hearing. “This will continue to poison and bioaccumulate in the environment.”

What I’m Reading Now

• Would you like a side of embezzlement with your fried Oreos? The Los Angeles Times investigates dozens of fairs where fraud comes with the price of admission.
• Huntington Beach officials lost their latest attempt to avoid building low-income housing, the San Francisco Chronicle explains.
• California’s AI regulations were targeted in an latest executive order Trump signed to limit restrictions around the technology, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Thanks, as always, for reading the Sacramento Report. Reach me with any tips, questions or story ideas: nadia@voiceofsandiego.org.

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