$10M Suit Claims South San Francisco Police Officer Murdered Black Teen

From [HERE] The family of a 15-year-old boy shot and killed by a South San Francisco police officer has filed a $10 million wrongful death lawsuit against the city. The lawsuit accuses Officer Joshua Cabillo of being motivated by prejudice when he shot Derrick Gaines at a gas station on June 5. Gaines was African American.

The San Mateo Daily Journal reports that the suit was filed this week in federal court. Cabillo was cleared of any wrongdoing in the shooting by San Mateo County prosecutors.

According to the police investigation, Gaines ran and was struck in the back of the head with a gun by Cabillo after Cabillo tried to detain him. Investigators say Cabillo shot Gaines after Gaines reached for a gun upon falling to the ground. An officer approached two teens who they said appeared to be “acting suspiciously.” Then, the police say, one of the teens – Derrick – ran, drew a gun from his waistband and pointed it – at which point the officer gunned him down.

Eyewitnesses tell a different story of events that night. They say that Derrick never drew a weapon and was instead shot down by an officer who brutalized and restrained him first – throwing him to the ground with such force that a shoe was knocked off his foot. [MORE] 

Gaines' mother, Rachel Guido told the Daily Journal, “They didn’t even come to my house and tell me he’s dead,” she said about police. The friend who was with Gaines that night, Remy Carrillo, told her that her son had been shot, Guido said.

Guido also stated that although she would never condone the action of the boy she helped raise, she said Gaines would not have been reaching for the gun because he knew it did not work. The gun was not loaded nor did it have a firing pin. [MORE] 

Gaines' lawyer, John Burris, said "This young man and another young man were just walking along and they were just stopped by police with no apparent reason, without an actual basis&kind of a classic racial profiling," said Burris. Burris says he has witnesses who will say that Gaines didn't reach for anything. [MORE]