From [HERE] The jury returned a hung verdict in the trial of the police shooting and killing of Darrell Richards, a 19 year old Black man yesterday after three days of deliberation.
Senior U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez declared a mistrial after the jury told him they could not reach a unanimous verdict.
The wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Sacramento and the Sacramento Police Department lasted just over two weeks.
Vang, Richards’ mother, said she doesn’t feel good about knowing she’ll have to go through another trial but is thankful that she has the chance to.
“I feel good to have the opportunity to keep fighting thanks to the one juror who believed in the truth and not the lies,” Vang said.
Melissa Nold, one of the attorneys for Richards’ parents, said the jury pool really lacked diversity, even more than usual.
“We had lots of people with close police connections, including at least one of the jurors that was seated for the trial,” Nold said. “It’s very hard to convince people that marry and date police to see fault in them.”
Vang thinks the jury already had their minds made up before the trial began.
“At the end of the day it didn’t matter how good or how many facts were proven. It all lies in the hands of the jury and I knew the majority were undercover bias,” Vang said. “A lot of people are for the police until it happens to one of their loved ones.”
Richards was shot 10 times by police after running from police and an hours-long standoff that ended around 3:00 a.m. in the backyard of a Curtis Park home on Sept. 6, 2018. Dispatchers received a call about a man wearing a mask and pointing a firearm at people along Broadway near Tower Cafe. “Decedent was not holding a firearm at the time that he was shot to death," the suit states.“I had a bad feeling from the gate because of the selection of the jury we had,” Vang said.
According to the complaint:
Sacramento Police Officers watched Darell jump a fence and then enter a backyard outside of their view. At the same time, a California Highway Patrol (hereinafter CHP) aircraft was on scene assisting the search. From the air, CHP Officer Young was able to observe Darell jump the backyard fence, cross through the backyard and disappear under the cover of tree. The CHP aircraft tracks via heat sensing technology from an elevation of approximately 6,000 feet in the air. During the same timeframe, Sacramento Police Department S.W.A.T. team was deployed to the area and set up a one block perimeter with the assistance of a California Highway Patrol (CHP) aircraft. CHP Officer Young assessed the scene from the air and determined that the one-block perimeter was good, because he did not observe Darell leave that block. Sacramento Police Officers were holding positions around the small, approximately 10 parcel block, to ensure that Darell did not leave that one-block area.
Defendant Lieutenant Sood held a briefing to inform officers of their plan to locate Darell. Prior to Lt. Sood’s briefing, Sacramento Police Officers located Darell’s backpack, which he discarded while running from officers. The backpack contained identifying information, a possible suicide note and a receipt from ‘Big 5 Sporting Goods’ which recorded the sale of a Sig Sauer pellet gun purchased earlier the same day.
The Defendant Officers were informed prior to initiating the search that their fellow officers had found Darell’s backpack and the contents included within it, including the receipt for the pellet gun. Officers were informed about Darell’s possible suicidal ideation and his recent police contacts, which revealed potential organic or drug induced mental health issues.
The Defendant Officers made no efforts to contact and/or involve Darell Richards’ family, despite knowing his identity, address and potential for self-harm.
Defendant Lt. Sood intentionally did not summon assistance from other departments or agencies. Indeed, Lt. Sood made no efforts to obtain the 24-hour a day on-call Crisis Intervention Team, or any mental health experts, despite finding documents in Darell Richards’ backpack indicative of a potential suicidal subject and evidence that Darell purchased a pellet gun earlier the same day. [MORE]
At approximately 3:15 a.m., witnesses saw Officer Yesenia deploy a K-9 unit into the backyard of 2017 1st Avenue, without issuing a warning. The K-9 Officer went into the backyard, urinated and went back to the Officers. Officer Yesenia deployed the K-9 Officer a second time. This time according to witnesses, the K-9 Officer appeared to locate someone under the backyard deck and then returned to the Officers. Nevertheless, Officers entered the yard without announcing themselves or providing Darell an opportunity to surrender.
At this point, Darell had been hiding for approximately three hours. The police had made no attempts, whatsoever to contact him. Inexplicably, none of the officers on scene attempted to make contact with Darell, despite knowing his name and that he wrote a suicide note and was carrying a pellet gun. Moreover, none of the officers on scene attempted to contact Darell’s family, despite knowing that he had recent police contact where the family informed officers they suspected the police contact was due to a mental illness. Furthermore, none of the officers on scene attempted to contact Darell via his cell phone or social media accounts or issue Darell any commands or orders to surrender. Perhaps most egregious, none of the officers on scene identified themselves as police officers or warned Darell that they intended to deploy a police K-9 into the yard.
Immediately thereafter, numerous SWAT Officers, including Defendants Edgerton and Cox, and Officers Yesenia and Tiner entered the backyard in stealth mode and rounded the corner of the home. As they were midway through the yard, Officer Tiner heard a noise and pointed his 1000 lumin rifle light at Darell’s face, ostensibly blinding Darrell, and screamed “show me your hands” while Defendant Cox simultaneously yelled “drop the gun.” The team never assigned specific officers to be the point of contact and deliver commands, which resulted in both officers providing contradictory commands at the same time, after failing to identify themselves as police officers.
Within seconds, Sgt. Todd Edgerton and Officer Patrick Cox opened fire, striking Decedent multiple times in the head and body. Mr. Richards died as a result of his injuries.
None of the officers’ body worn camera show what Darell was doing at the time of the shooting. Defendant Edgerton’s body worn camera would have shown what Darell was doing when he was shot, but he conspicuously failed to activate it during the course of this incident.
Darell Richards had a gunshot entry wound in the palm of his right hand, indicating that he had one or more hands raised during the shooting.
None of the officers on scene ever announced themselves or identified themselves as police officers at any time in the three hours prior to shooting and killing Darell Richards. In fact, no one from the Sacramento Police Department ever notified Darell Richards of the heavy police presence prior to sneaking up on him and shooting him.
Neither of the Defendant Officers identified themselves as police officers or warned Darell Richards of their intent to use deadly force, prior to shooting and killing him.
To date, there has been no disciplinary decisions made regarding this incident and the statute of limitations for employee discipline has passed.
Attorneys for Richards’ parents argued that police did not follow protocols and procedures during a SWAT Team situation.
“The cops sat there on the stand under oath just lying trying to justify their evil act,” Vang said
Attorneys for the City and police never could provide any videos of their claim of Richards pointing a pellet gun at officers.
Deputy City Attorneys Sean Richmond and Deputy City Attorney Matthew Day told the Sacramento Bee that they appreciated the jury’s work on the case.
“We understand it was a tough case to get a verdict on … and respect the conclusion of the jury," Richmond said.
Nold said it was frustrating and emotionally draining to have to take this case back to trial.
“It definitely is, civil rights work isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s really hard to explain to the family because they sat through the trial and felt it went a different way,” Nold said.
Vang thinks the jury already had their minds made up before the trial began.
“At the end of the day it didn’t matter how good or how many facts were proven. It all lies in the hands of the jury and I knew the majority were undercover bias,” Vang said. “A lot of people are for the police until it happens to one of their loved ones.”
Nold said her team will be retrying this case as soon as possible “to get the justice and accountability Darell deserves.”
“They already silenced my son, they will not silence us. They recklessly took his precious life then tried to criminalize his character,” Vang said. “The fight continues and doesn’t end here.”
