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The City Attorney’s Office in San Diego has agreed to a substantial $30 million settlement with the family of a 16-year-old who was tragically shot by police in January, marking one of the largest settlements in a police shooting case in U.S. history.
The San Diego City Council is set to discuss and potentially approve the proposed settlement for Konoa Wilson’s family during their meeting on Tuesday morning.
If the settlement is approved, it will surpass the $27 million paid by Minneapolis to the family of George Floyd after his murder by an officer who knelt on his neck in May 2020, an incident that ignited a nationwide conversation on racial justice.
Footage from surveillance cameras and body-worn cameras on January 28 captured the moment Wilson fled from an individual who brandished a gun and shot at him at a downtown train station. As Wilson attempted to escape, he encountered San Diego Police Officer Daniel Gold.
In their lawsuit against the city and Officer Gold, Wilson’s family claimed that the officer “immediately and without warning” fired two shots at Wilson as he ran past, hitting him in the upper body. The lawsuit notes that Wilson was Black.
“Only after shooting DECEDENT and watching him fall to the ground did Defendant GOLD finally announce ‘San Diego Police,’ ” said the lawsuit, which was filed in June. “Defendants committed acts of racial violence against DECEDENT, a teenager, by shooting him in his back as he ran past Defendant GOLD, in an attempt to get to a place of safety.”
Wilson was pronounced dead at UC San Diego Health Medical Center less than an hour later.
An agenda item posted Friday said the settlement would be paid from the Public Liability Fund.
Lt. Chris Tivanian, a spokesman for the San Diego Police Department, told The New York Times that Gold remained on an administrative assignment pending the results of a case review by the city attorney.
“He was a rookie, and he shot before he even announced who he was,” Rowley said of Gold during a Zoom call with reporters. “I don’t think he’s a bad man. But he did a very, very bad, reckless thing.”