Sacramento County settled a case for $365,000 in which a deputy mistakenly shot a man in 2017 after misidentifying a lighter as a weapon.
The settlement was confirmed in a document obtained by The Sacramento Bee through a California Public Records Act request, and finalized in June.
On June 17, 2017, Kenard Thomas’s ex-girlfriend called 911 to report seeing Thomas walk by her home in violation of a restraining order, then observed him entering a vacant home on 53rd Avenue, according to a District Attorney’s Office review.
When four deputies responded and entered the house to look for Thomas, he was discovered hiding in a bedroom closet. Deputy Nicholas Russell, upon opening the closet door and seeing Thomas’ face, fired a shot at him, hitting his shoulder.
“When Deputy Trummel turned, he saw Thomas at the closet sitting and holding something in his right hand,” the DA memo stated. “Deputy Trummel heard Deputy Russell demand Thomas show him his hands. Thomas crawled out of the closet and dropped the object. It was a Bic lighter.”
Thomas, who is Black, filed a lawsuit against the county, alleging Russell’s actions were racially biased and violated several policies requiring deputies to see a suspect’s hands before shooting.
“At the time Russell fired the shot, Thomas was shirtless, unarmed, and was not engaging in any assaultive or threatening behavior,” the federal lawsuit, filed in 2018, stated. “He was holding a plastic disposable lighter which was clearly visible in his hand. It was obvious that Thomas did not pose a risk of harm to any person present.”
As a result of being shot, Thomas suffered significant pain, permanent disfigurement, and neurological damage that affected the use of his arm, according to the lawsuit.
Sacramento County declined to comment on the settlement, according to spokeswoman Kim Nava.
Sacramento Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Amar Gandhi declined to disclose whether Russell is still employed as a Sacramento Sheriff’s deputy.
Russell later explained to investigators, “I thought he had a knife, he had a gun, I thought he was coming to harm me,” the DA memo stated.
Then-District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert did not file criminal charges against Russell, she announced in August 2018.
“Instead of Thomas identifying his position to the deputies or allowing the deputies to find him and detain him, immediately upon Deputy Russell opening the door Thomas rushed out of the closet directly towards Deputy Russell,” a District Attorney’s Office memo from Aug. 27, 2018 stated. “Deputy Russell perceived Thomas as an imminent threat to his safety at the time he discharged his firearm. Given the circumstances of this particular case, it is not reasonably likely a jury of twelve individuals would unanimously agree that Deputy Russell was unreasonable in his belief that he was in imminent danger of death or great bodily injury at the time of the shooting.”
Out of the $365,000 settlement, $259,000 went to Thomas’s attorney Stewart Katz, $100,000 went to Thomas, and $20,000 went to Solano County Department of Child Support as a partial payment of back child support payment obligations, Nava said.
