From [HERE] and [MORE] Federal civil suits brought by the widow and the daughter of a parolee who was fatally shot by sheriff's deputies in a Vista mobile-home park in 2006 landed in the hands of a jury Wednesday afternoon.

David Arnulfo Lopez, 27. San Diego County sheriff's deputies shot him 12 times, including nine shots to his back. Lopez was unarmed.

An attorney for Lopez's family has said the deputies used excessive force. And the trajectory of the shots and the placement of Lopez's body, according to the attorney, indicate Lopez was fleeing ---- not fighting ---- when the shots were fired.

The attorney for the three accused deputies argues that his clients reasonably believed Lopez was armed and that they were in danger. During a scuffle on the small raised porch of a mobile home, the shirtless Lopez reached for his waistband ---- raising the deputies' fears he was reaching for a weapon, the deputies said.

But attorney David Landry, who represents Lopez's widow, said the evidence, as well as the original statement of one of the three deputies, shows that Lopez had leaped onto the roof of a nearby shed in an attempt to flee when the three men fired at him.

The deputies, he said, range in height between 5 feet 11 inches and 6 feet tall. Lopez was 5 feet 6 inches tall. The men testified that they were standing when they shot Lopez, Landry argued, but the trajectory of the bullets clearly shows he was shot from below.