The daughters of a homeless man killed by Tustin police have been awarded $17 million. City calls are worth it

A judge has awarded $17 million to the daughters of a 39-year-old homeless man who was shot and killed by a Tustin police officer five years ago.

In handing down their verdict Tuesday morning, jurors said the shooting of Luis Manuel Garcia in 2021 was not only excessive but also senseless, according to Dale K. Galipo, the daughters’ attorney. Attorneys Michael Carrillo and Renee V. Masongsong are also representing the sisters in the civil case against the city of Tustin.

“This decision means a lot to them because they feel that there is justice for their father, and proof that his life meant something,” said Galipo in a telephone interview.

Galipo said the decision also brought some closure to Garcia’s daughters – Emily, 23, and Camila, 17 – who have been facing this case for the past five years.

“The fact that the jury unanimously said that this officer was completely wrong and your father was completely wrong, I think it meant a lot to them.”

He said the jury valued Garcia’s life at $5 million, $5 million in damages and an additional $7 million to his family.

The Tustin Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.

The city of Tustin defended its officers, saying in writing that an investigation by the California Department of Justice, which is required by law to look into police-related shooting deaths, determined that the officers in this case acted in self-defense and were justified in using force against an armed suspect.

“While we continue to offer our condolences, we are disappointed in this decision, in this case, and will consider our options moving forward,” Tustin said in a statement.

The Garcia sisters filed a federal lawsuit in February 2022 identifying Estella Silva as the police officer who shot and killed their father.

The shooting happened on August 9, 2021, in front of a mobile home park at 15401 William St. At the time, Garcia, who had mental health issues, was living on the street and sleeping behind a large bush near the wall surrounding the mobile home park, according to family and authorities.

Silva and other officers responded to the area that morning after a resident, a retired Tustin police officer, reported to a dispatcher that a homeless man had been living in the woods in front of a mobile home park for the past two days and had a “large butcher knife,” according to the lawsuit. California Department of Justice Report.

The caller told the dispatcher that he saw the man the day before “walking around with a knife, swinging it around, talking to himself,” the state report said. He described the man as an older white man with white hair, features that did not match Garcia, a Latino man with a buzz cut.

A body-worn police officer’s body camera captured the moments leading up to the shooting. The nine-minute video shows Silva walking into the woods with his service weapon out while Officer Joshua Yuhas follows.

At one point, Silva peeks into the woods and orders Garcia several times to come out with his hands up and stop touching his bags. As Garcia tries to get out, Silva and Yuhas try to grab him. Garcia backs off, the video shows.

When Garcia tried to get out a second time, he did so with a white wooden stick in one hand, prompting Yuhas to pull out his Taser and Silva to point his service weapon at Garcia, ordering him to put his hands up, according to the video. Silva later told investigators that he was stabbed with a stick, but nowhere in the video does he report to the police helping him. Silva was not wearing a body cam.

Seconds after backing off, Garcia walks out, holding a cane upright and plastic bags full of recyclables, asking Silva in Spanish: “May I ask a pegar? Dale, dale, pega me?” — “Why do you want to hit me? Go, hit me.”

The video then shows Yuhas firing his Taser and Garcia crying out in pain. As he emerges from the forest, Silva fires his weapon twice.

Garcia runs away yelling at the third officer and drops the cane before being pushed into a bed of trees near the curb.

“Thank you, thank you,” Garcia is heard saying — “It hurts, it hurts.”

Garcia repeatedly told police that his stomach hurt when they tried to handcuff him. The video shows his back covered in blood.

For more than 10 minutes, officers tried to provide medical assistance to Garcia, often speaking to him in English and Spanish to keep him awake while they tried to determine how many times he had been shot, according to the video.

In an interview with investigators, Silva said he had two fights with Garcia. The first was in 2020 when he arrested him for allegedly robbing an ice cream seller. Authorities say Garcia allegedly used a baton to threaten the seller. The second incident happened three months before the shooting. He told investigators he arrested him on a warrant for assault with a deadly weapon.

“I knew he was going to be dealt with quickly,” Silva said in the Justice Department report. “I knew he had the power to attack people around him. … It’s no wonder he would have several knives or a knife in his hand.”

Silva told investigators he believed Garcia wanted to hit him in the face with a wooden stick and opened fire because he had nowhere to turn. He told investigators that he shot him a second time to force him to drop the stick as he ran toward the third officer, identified only by his last name, Frias.

The state’s report found that Silva used “deadly force to overcome resistance and self-defense against the suspect’s attack with a heavy pole and to protect Officer Frias who was in immediate danger.”

Although the Justice Department report and several witnesses claimed to have seen Garcia armed with a knife, no such weapon was found at the scene.

Galipo disputed the state’s findings and said the police never ordered Garcia to drop the wooden stick or be shot or threatened with a Taser.

“They admitted at least during the trial, and the video shows that he never turned the stick and the stick did not hit anyone,” said Galipo. Was there a potential threat?