Bakersfield Sued for Police Shooting of Latino Man

The City of Bakersfield is facing a lawsuit by the family of a Bakersfield man shot to death by police a year ago. Gabriel Garcia, 20, was killed when he refused orders to drop his knife. Garcia was trying to force his way into the home of a registered sex offender. Last year, BPD passed out fliers in a southwest neighborhood warning people that known sex offender Vincent Verdile lived there and said he may be involved in that type of crime. The federal lawsuit points to the flier and BPD misconduct as the reason Garcia ended up being killed by police. After Garcia’s death, many conversations were recorded at the Police Dispatch Center, including one where an officer can be heard saying, “well, if we’re going to shoot him, we might as well do it right.” Attorney Kiya Kato is representing Garcia’s family. “The thing that's most offensive is that the individual making those comments is not only a Bakersfield Police officer, but he's the person who's charged with the responsibility of investigating the shooting,” said Kato. She said the remark is symptomatic of a bigger problem with BPD and its policy on when to use deadly force. “The police should allow shooting the individual poses an imminent threat of physical danger to somebody, and the facts in this case would show that type of danger just did not exist,” said Kato. But Bakersfield City Attorney Ginny Genaro said everything officers did was reasonable. “I'm very confident that our actions by our officers will be found justified,” said Genaro. He was trying to kick in Verdile’s door and carrying a knife, according to police. “This young man was not responding to the oral directives of the Police Department,” said Genaro. “He did not respond to the tazer. He was obviously under the influence of some type of stimulant.”  [more] and [more]

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