A $30 million lawsuit against the city of Pacifica was filed Monday on behalf of the family of a man killed after getting shocked by Taser guns by Pacifica police officers. Filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco by Oakland civil rights attorney John Burris, the complaint seeks $30 million in general damages in connection with the Jan. 2 death of 30-year-old Greg Saulsbury. Named as defendants in the lawsuit were the city of Pacifica, seven individual officers and police Chief Pat Brennan, while plaintiffs included members of Saulsbury's family present at the time of the incident. "This is a death that should not have occurred," Burris told The Examiner. "It was not drugs that caused this death. The police's reaction and conduct was so aggressive that it exacerbated his condition." A coroner's report on Saulsbury determined that a combination of the struggle with police, shocks from Taser guns and the cocaine present in the victim's system likely caused a fatal heart attack. [more] According to his family, Saulsbury came home late Jan. 2 and began complaining that people were after him and that he couldn't breathe. Clarice Patterson, Saulsbury's 68-year-old grandmother, said a family member called 911 for medical assistance but that the police arrived before the paramedics and forced their way into the house on Inverness Drive. She said Saulsbury was thrown to the ground and repeatedly shot with a Taser, while the rest of the family was ordered outside. Saulsbury was pronounced dead at a hospital at 12:40 a.m. Jan. 3. [more] and [more]
- Pictured above:
Michael Tillman arrives at the funeral of his stepson, Greg Saulsbury,
who was killed by Pacifica, Calif. police when they shot him with an
electric taser gun [more]