The grandmother of Dejon Heard, who was shot to death by police in Bird Rock last year, is suing the city of San Diego and the Police Department, accusing the department of altering body camera footage of the shooting.
In the suit, filed in U.S. District Court, Susan Klat also alleges “intentional police targeting of an unarmed vulnerable citizen,” general negligence leading to wrongful death, negligence by a public entity, excessive use of force and more.
The suit also accuses the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office of improperly investigating the case.
The suit seeks compensatory and general damages and special and/or punitive damages, costs associated with filing the lawsuit and other damages deemed appropriate by the court.
Representatives of the SDPD and Sheriff’s Office said they could not comment about pending litigation.
It was unclear when the case would have a court hearing.
Heard, 25, was shot around 7 a.m. July 6 after police received multiple calls about a man with a knife causing a disturbance on the street in the 5400 block of La Jolla Boulevard near the Midway Street roundabout.
The Sheriff’s Office, which investigated the case as is protocol with police shootings involving San Diego officers, said in a statement at the time that police officers arrived and saw a man next to a vehicle stopped on the road. As officers approached, he walked toward them with a knife, according to the statement and a witness who described the confrontation to the La Jolla Light.
The officers drew their service weapons and told Heard to drop the knife. He ignored the commands and continued approaching, according to officials and the witness. One officer fired, striking Heard. Two residents described hearing three shots.
Officers then provided medical aid to Heard and paramedics took him to a hospital, where he died. No officers were injured in the confrontation, authorities said.
Klat told the Light at the time that Heard had a history of mental health struggles.
“There were times he would have anxiety attacks … and he would get in his own head and would have his moments,” she said. “It’s heartbreaking.”
Klat told the Light that Heard had been in foster care since his teens and that she had been his primary source of financial . She said he was living in his car at the time of his death.
The Sheriff’s Office identified the officer who fired as Tarik Andrew. It said he had been with the San Diego Police Department for three years and was assigned to the Northern Division, which includes La Jolla.
Andrew is named in the lawsuit, along with Officer Jason Aguilar, SDPD property division representative Angela Laurita, Capt. Charles Lara, Detective Gregory Arnold, Chief Scott Wahl, county Sheriff Kelly Martinez and sheriff’s investigators Lon Nguyen and Michael Krugh.
The suit argues that Heard was approached by Andrew and Aguilar and “fatally shot, ambush-style.”
It says the officers had been dispatched in response to 911 calls about a man in distress who was loudly talking to himself while walking around a stalled vehicle blocking traffic.
“Officer Andrew can be seen speaking to his partner, Officer Aguilar, while putting on a pair of black gloves before exiting the police vehicle with his weapon drawn, pointing at Dejon and seemingly eager to discharge his firearm before assessing the situation,” the suit claims.
It further alleges that “the defendants … working together, knowingly altered and/or modified portions of the SDPD officer body camera footage related to the shooting” that was released five days later.
“Both Officers Andrew and Aguilar were recorded on camera discussing their intent to use deadly force while driving to the location to assess reports of a distressed man circling a car and talking to himself, who was not hurting anyone,” according to the suit.
“SDPD officer body camera footage shared on the Police Department’s YouTube channel [shows] second-by-second clips depicting Officer Tarik Andrew’s body camera zoom-in/zoom-out close-up photos while the ambush officer-initiated provocation attack was taking place,” the suit says, “and with the deceased’s hand flesh being discolored along with Dejon’s body positioned in different poses within the same second timeframe on multiple occasions — suggesting the video had been altered before posting online.”
The video released by police showed the officers pull up and park in the northbound lane while Heard was standing next to the driver’s door of his parked car in the southbound lane, speaking incoherently.
In the video, Heard looked at the officers and said, “All right, let’s do this.” With his shoe flying off and a knife raised over his shoulder, he charged, then stutter-stepped toward the patrol vehicle and Andrew, who was on the enger side. Both officers, guns drawn, backed away.
Heard, still holding the knife, slowed then stopped as he repeatedly screamed, “You’ve got to be kidding with me right now!” By that point, he was at the front of the police car on the enger side, the same side as Andrew.
Heard started to walk toward Andrew, and the officer, backing away, opened fire.
Heard screamed and dropped to the ground with the knife beside him. As the two officers approached and yelled commands at him, Heard flicked the knife under the police car, where he could no longer reach it.
The footage ended seconds later.
Heard had been arrested in 2019 on allegations of stabbing another man and spent seven months in jail.
Klat told the Light last year that that incident “put him over the edge” and exacerbated his mental health struggles.
“The arrest and time in jail scared him, but he wasn’t cognitively there to understand what was happening,” Klat said. “He filed a complaint and said the police were harassing him, but he felt like no one was listening to him. They would shame him. He struggled so deeply from that event.”
As a result, she said, Heard developed a fear of police officers, which made it difficult for her to believe the reports that he approached officers with a knife.
Klat’s lawsuit also questions the autopsy process after Heard’s death and the handling of witness statements and Heard’s belongings.
It claims there is “correspondence demonstrating that both city and county of San Diego law enforcement agencies and agents, acting together, intentionally failed to perform countywide obligatory investigations into the … shooting incident.” ♦
