Jury clears deputy in wrongful death suit

SAN DIEGO  — It took a federal jury a little more than an hour Monday to unanimously reject a Los Angeles family’s claim that a San Diego County Sheriff’s deputy was negligent and used excessive force when he shot and killed a man during a confrontation with police in Oceanside three years ago.

The wrongful death lawsuit was filed against Deputy Michael Astorga and the county by the family of 22-year-old Elwood White, who authorities said was wielding a sharp wooden broom handle and was on a bizarre rampage when the incident unfolded on May 20, 2012.

Witnesses said White had been throwing rocks, speaking incoherently, punching and attacking strangers and trashing a gas station convenience store in Oceanside near the border of Vista.

Five law enforcement officers — two Oceanside police and three Vista-based sheriff’s deputies — responded to 911 calls, and caught up with White on Oceanside Boulevard near Temple Heights Elementary School.

By then, White was holding a 4-foot long broken push-broom handle with a jagged edge and was still attacking people and vehicles.

The officers formed an arc around him. All five drew their weapons and ordered him to drop the stick. As he moved closer to one deputy, Astorga fired one shot.

White, also identified as Elwood Edwards, was struck in the torso and died at the scene.

The dead man’s parents, Tim and Darleen White, sued Astorga for wrongful death, excessive force, negligence and battery. He denied liability for the incident.

“The family is of course devastated by the verdict,” Carl Douglas, one of two attorneys representing White’s parents, said Monday afternoon.

Astorga’s attorney, Ricky Sanchez of the County Counsel’s office, had argued that the deputy reacted reasonably to a threat. He could not immediately be reached for comment after the verdict Monday.

Attorneys for both sides had wrapped up closing arguments Monday afternoon following more than a week of testimony before a jury of six women and two men in U.S. District Court in San Diego.

Jamon Hicks, who was also representing White’s family, had argued that law enforcement officers are trained to de-escalate such situations and that less lethal methods should have been used, such as a Taser or bean bag rounds.

He said that all five officers were presented with the same threat, but only one opened fire.

“This case is about whether or not he should have been shot,” Hicks told the jury. “There was too much force used.”

He suggested the panel consider awarding the family damages of nearly $3.5 million.

“He didn’t deserve to die,” Hicks said.

Sanchez had argued that White had gone on a violent rampage, was still wielding the sharp broomstick — which could be a deadly weapon — and was closing in on a deputy when Astorga opened fire out of fear that White was about to attack.

“At that moment in time, that threat was real… and a use of lethal force was appropriate,” Sanchez said. “

He also pointed to testimony that two other law enforcement officers at the scene said they were considering opening fire, but did not do so because they heard Astorga fire a shot, thus ending the threat.

Sanchez said that White “was not acting reasonably… and was the cause of his own injury.”

“All he needed to do that day was put down his weapon and surrender,” Sanchez later said. “He refused to do so.”

About nine months after the incident, the District Attorney’s office — which investigates all shootings by law officers in the county — cleared Astorga of criminal wrongdoing.

Authorities still don’t know what set off White, who had no history of arrests or violence and had no prior diagnosis of mental illness.

Although the trial did not touch upon race, it came amid a national conversation on the use of force by law enforcement officers, touched off by the fatal shooting of a teen last year during an altercation with police in Ferguson, Missouri.