One night in late January this year, 16-year-old Konoa Wilson was at a train station in downtown San Diego when he was confronted by another teenager, who pointed a gun at him and fired.
The shots missed Konoa, and as he fled the gunfire, he was confronted by a police officer at a station exit. The officer, almost instantaneously, fired his gun at Konoa’s back as he ran by, and the teenager was pronounced dead 35 minutes later at a hospital.
The San Diego city attorney’s office has agreed to pay $30 million to Konoa’s family, one of the largest settlements in a police killing case in U.S. history. The San Diego City Council will formally consider the settlement on Tuesday, according to an agenda posted on Friday.
The amount surpasses the $27 million that the city of Minneapolis agreed in 2021 to pay to the family of George Floyd, who was murdered by a city police officer who pressed his knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes as he repeatedly said he could not breathe.
Nicholas Rowley, the lawyer who negotiated the settlement for Konoa’s family, along with the San Diego law firm Aminpour & Associates, had warned the city in a brief he filed in court that he would ask a jury for at least $100 million if the case went to trial.
“If there was ever a case that would justify a verdict like that, it’s this case,” Mr. Rowley said in an interview. “You have a 16-year-old kid who is running away from danger, doesn’t know he’s running towards the police, but he’s running toward the police, and there’s a police officer that shoots him in the back. You’ve got it all on video.”
The San Diego city attorney’s office declined to comment on Friday.
There is no central database that tracks police misconduct settlements across the country, but the $27 million payout to Mr. Floyd’s family was considered at the time to be the largest in U.S. history.
John Rappaport, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School who has studied police settlements, said that payout amounts have been rising since Mr. Floyd’s murder.
“My sense is that it has changed, and the lid sort of came off settlement values,” he said. “I noticed maybe a decade ago that there was a pattern where it seemed like a lot of settlements for fatalities were around five to six million.”
He pointed to the payouts in some of the highest-profile police killings before Mr. Floyd was murdered: The family of Laquan McDonald, who was killed by the Chicago police, received $5 million; New York City paid $5.9 million to settle in the case of Eric Garner’s death at the hands of the police; and in Cleveland, the city paid $6 million to the family of Tamir Rice.
“And then post-George Floyd you’ve started to see a lot more settlements in double-digit millions,” Mr. Rappaport said.
He continued, “I don’t think we’re seeing a worsening in police behavior. I think we’re seeing the reflection of changing attitudes about police misconduct.”
In February, the San Diego Police Department released a video of the episode, which included body camera footage by the officer, Daniel Gold II, who had been on the force for two years. The department said Officer Gold had initially responded to a report of an assault on a train. But shortly after arriving at the station, he heard gunshots. And shortly after that, Konoa came running past Officer Gold, who fired within three seconds.
Lt. Chris Tivanian, a spokesman for the San Diego Police Department, said that Officer Gold remained on an administrative assignment with the department. He said the district attorney’s office is currently reviewing the case, and the department will not make a decision on Officer Gold’s future until that investigation is complete.
The department, in its video, highlighted the fact that police officers recovered a gun Konoa was carrying that was found under his clothing while officers administered medical aid.
“The reason why he had a gun is because he is half Black and there were kids, some new gangster kids in San Diego, who had jumped him a few times and hurt him so bad he was in a hospital,” Mr. Rowley said. “He was afraid.”
Konoa, an only child, was a passionate surfer who was always at the beach with his father and dreamed of a profession that would keep him connected to the water. “He loved the ocean,” Mr. Rowley said. “Didn’t like wearing shoes. If he could be at the beach all day, that’s where he would be.”
Konoa’s parents declined to be interviewed. At a candlelight vigil in San Diego in February, just after the police released body camera footage of Konoa’s death, his father, Steven Wilson, was asked about memories of his son.
“There’s too many to list,” Mr. Wilson said, according to Fox 5 San Diego, a local television station. “We were together every day of his life.”
Tim Arango is a correspondent covering national news. He is based in Los Angeles.
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