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Two people wounded by less-lethal munitions fired by Alameda County sheriff’s deputies during the George Floyd protests in Oakland in 2020 will share $250,000 following a permanent injunction against Oakland police and the Sheriff’s Office, lawyers for the two people said Thursday.
In addition, the injunction restricts the use of less-lethal munitions by Oakland police and sheriff’s deputies at political demonstrations as well as any crowd event in the county.
Deputies shot Tosh Sears, 52, and Kierra Brown, 22, with 40mm munitions with a hard, foam rubber tip after Oakland police brought in the deputies June 1 as part of a mutual aid agreement.
The George Floyd demonstrations on June 1 when Sears and Brown were shot were peaceful, their attorneys said.
“In this case they let mutual aid do their dirty work,” lead attorney Rachel Lederman said in a statement about Oakland police.
Oakland police were prohibited from using the munitions unless someone was in immediate danger of death or great bodily injury.
Lawyers tried to create change in 2003 after Oakland police shot more than 50 people with less-lethal munitions during an anti-war demonstration.
“We sat down and hammered out a crowd control policy in which Oakland agreed not to use these munitions for crowd control,” Lederman said. “But every time there’s a resurgence of large demonstrations, OPD violates that agreement.”
“Nothing will erase the emotional pain and terror I felt on June 1, 2020,” Sears said in a statement. “I felt like a target in my own city, at the hands of people who are supposed to protect me.”
Members of Sears’ family were police officers, including a grandfather “who was the first Black police officer in Las Vegas.”
But now he doesn’t “feel safe around police as a Black man.”
He hopes the settlement creates change.
When police and deputies started teargassing demonstrators June 1, Sears was shot in the hip by a deputy as Sears turned to leave. Brown was helping people wash their eyes of the teargas when police charged at her.
She tried to follow police directions to run in a certain direction when a deputy shot her in the calf.
“This was a terrifying experience,” Brown said in a statement. “Just seeing the way that the officers treated unarmed, innocent people was deeply painful.”
That fear has not left her, she said.
“I am pleased that this settlement will not only help Tosh and me, but will help the Oakland community to be able to continue to speak out against racism and police violence,” Brown said.
Sears and Brown are not the only ones to be wounded by less-lethal munitions.
Veteran Scott Olsen was accidentally hit in the head with a munition in 2011 during the Occupy demonstration in Oakland. Olsen suffered a shattered skull and permanent brain damage as a result.
“We were trying to address that,” Lederman said.
Police will also address, as part of the settlement, situations when less-lethal munitions are most often used with teargas.
The settlement requires Oakland police to clarify for its officers that just because a person picks up or throws a chemical agent canister or another object does not justify shooting them, civil rights attorney R. Michael Flynn said.
“Even if someone does pose a grave danger, the injunction prohibits police from shooting into a crowd, especially when people are running from teargas,” Flynn said in a statement.
Police must first try de-escalating the situation and provide enough notice and opportunity for people to leave before firing munitions, according to the settlement and Assembly Bill 48, which went into effect Jan. 1, Flynn said.
AB 48 bans the use of less-lethal munitions and chemical agents by law enforcement to disperse a crowd except by officers who are trained to use them and to protect against loss of life or great bodily injury or to safely control a dangerous and unlawful situation.
The injunction also bans Oakland police and Alameda County sheriff’s deputies from firing at crowds with munitions, such as lead-filled “beanbags,” from shotguns and from throwing flashbang-like explosive grenades into crowds.
Oakland police said they are “currently updating policies to comply with the requirements of the settlement agreement with the City of Oakland, as well as ensuring we are abiding by AB48.”
The court will enforce the injunction for five years.
An Alameda County sheriff’s spokesperson was unfamiliar with the injunction and referred a request for comment to Alameda County County Counsel Donna Ziegler, who did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
