‘Horrifying.’ Fresno police sued for wrongful death in shooting of Black man last year
A wrongful death lawsuit accuses Fresno police officers of using excessive force when they shot an unarmed mentally-ill Black man after he barricaded himself inside a broken-down car during a drug-induced episode in March last year.
The lawsuit, filed last week in Fresno County Superior Court against the city of Fresno, claims police were “willful, wanton and malicious” during the fatal encounter with 55-year-old Gerald Johnson and acted with “reckless disregard” of his rights and safety.
“It feels like it happened a week ago,” his brother, Willie Ed Johnson, told The Bee in an interview Wednesday. “I saw that he was shot in the neck, the chest, and stomach. It was horrifying to watch.”
On a brisk March evening nearly a year ago, Fresno police officers encountered Johnson in a distraught state. He had shuttered himself in an abandoned car in his family’s backyard located on the 2900 block of East Gilbert Avenue, just east of Highway 41 and north of Ventura Avenue.
The police, who family members said had dealt with Johnson in previous incidents, were called to respond to a disturbance after Johnson had reportedly swung a shovel at a relative.
Johnson was believed to be in the midst of a mental breakdown, possibly provoked by the influence of drugs, before officers arrived at the scene where they spent hours trying to coax him to come out of the car and surrender, according to a police report.
Officers planned on arresting him on suspicion of felony assault, the police report shows.
According to the lawsuit, the family had emphasized that Johnson was never a threat to them. They told police Johnson was in possession of an unloaded pellet gun.
But when Johnson stopped communicating with the negotiator, officers began to approach the broken-down car. According to the police report, that’s when they saw what appeared to be a gun in Johnson’s hand, prompting them to open fire.
Johnson was rushed to Community Regional Community Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
“They wanted him dead for no reason,” Willie said. “Usually (police) want somebody dead because they could hurt somebody or injure somebody or threaten somebody, but he wasn’t like that.”
Fresno police haven’t released the names of the officers
Police did not respond to The Bee’s requests to identify the officers who shot Johnson, and city officials declined to comment on pending litigation.
The case also remains under investigation by the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office, according Jerry Stanley, the assistant district attorney. He said he couldn’t comment on the case.
The death devastated Johnson’s family, who said it was “unjustified” and “could have been prevented.”
“We know that nobody was in danger from this fellow sitting in this abandoned car in the backyard with an unloaded BB gun,” said Stuart Chandler, one of the attorneys representing the family.
Chandler said the officers involved “created a potentially dangerous situation” by approaching the vehicle, fully aware that Johnson could have had a harmful weapon.
“If you’re approaching somebody with the knowledge that they’ve got a pistol even though you’re told it’s a BB gun, but you’re going to assume that it’s a lethal weapon, then why are you approaching this person in the first place,” he said.
Chandler said the shooting violated established legal standards and California’s new deadly force law, which says officers have to exhaust all other available tools before using lethal force.
The lawsuit contends the officers “intentionally committed and attempted to commit acts of violence” against Johnson, “negligently” causing his death and inflicting severe emotional distress onto his family.
Willie, who was at the scene with Johnson’s teenage son, knew when the shots rang out that the police had killed his brother.
“We always had our guards up about the police, but we didn’t know this was going to happen execution-style in my mom’s backyard,” he said. “They took him out so violently. It’s sad and hard for us to deal with every day.”
After the shooting, Chandler said, the officers then pointed their weapons at Gerald Johnson Jr., the teenage son. He charged at the scene to be with his father but was restrained by police.
“He’s heard the shots go off, and he knows right then and there: ‘They shot my dad,’” Chandler said. “He goes and tries to run to his dad and (the officers) stopped the son, and they pointed guns at this teenage boy.”
The lawsuit echoes the stories of unarmed Black and brown men both locally and nationwide, brought to the spotlight by last year’s massive protests against police brutality and systemic racism following George Floyd’s death.
In Fresno, police violence against communities of color has disproportionately affected the city’s most impoverished neighborhoods.
Since 2015, at least 22 people were killed by law enforcement in Fresno County. Half were Latino, according to data from the state’s Department of Justice.
The shooting deaths of 16-year-old Isiah Murrietta-Golding, Freddy Centeno, 40, and Casimero “Shane” Casillas, 45 are among some of the cases that have spurred large protests and also prompted lawsuits and civil rights trials against the Fresno Police Department.
Chandler, who previously represented the families of Murrieteta-Golding and 19-year-old Dylan Noble, said he hopes civil action will lead to substantial change and force Fresno police to comply with state and federal laws.
“I do agree that civil suits should be more than just holding the city financially accountable,” he said. “There should also be a catalyst for real change that’s really going to take effect so that the use of force is within the constraints of the United States Constitution and the laws of the state of California.”
Before he was killed, Johnson was facing some hardships and battling a cancer diagnosis that had sent him on a downward spiral, his brother said. But he was in the middle of treatment and had a strong fighting chance.
Johnson’s brother hopes to put a mural up of him in the neighborhood for his kids to remember him.
“We all have life crises sometimes, and maybe his was a little different than everybody else,” he said. “But he didn’t deserve what happened to him.”
This story was originally published January 13, 2021 at 5:15 PM.