You called for help and police shot your loved one: mental health crisis shootings in California

Many families who reach us did the same thing: someone they love was in a mental health crisis, and they called for help. Instead, police arrived and the person was shot or killed. We are deeply sorry. If police shot your mentally ill son, daughter, brother or parent, a lawsuit may be possible, and a mental health crisis police shooting in California raises questions that ordinary shooting cases do not: what the officers knew about the person's condition, whether they slowed things down, and whether a crisis team should have been there instead.

This guide covers what California law says about force against people with disabilities, the crisis training officers must receive, the disability-rights claims that can apply, documented California cases, and what to do now. It is general information, not legal advice. The six-month deadline for a claim against a city or county applies here too.

What should happen when a family calls for mental health help

California law gives responders more than one way to handle a person in crisis. Under Welfare and Institutions Code § 5150, a peace officer, a designated member of a mobile crisis team, or certain other professionals may take a person into custody for up to 72 hours of assessment, evaluation and crisis intervention when there is probable cause that a mental health disorder makes the person a danger to self or others, or gravely disabled. In other words, the law already treats crisis response as care, not only as police work.

California also has a statewide crisis line. Since July 16, 2022, anyone can call or text 988 for a suicidal, mental health or substance use crisis, and calls in California are routed to one of 12 crisis centers based on area code, according to the California Health and Human Services Agency. Governor Newsom signed the Miles Hall Lifeline Act in September 2022 to expand crisis services. Mobile crisis teams, which send trained clinicians rather than armed officers, are part of that system, but availability still varies by county and time of day.

When a family asks for help and gets a patrol response instead, that is not automatically a legal violation. But it often becomes part of the story the evidence tells: what dispatch was told, what information reached the officers, and what options they had.

What training California requires officers to have

California sets minimum crisis training for officers through the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST):

• Police academy. Under Penal Code § 13515.26, the basic course must include at least 15 hours on recognizing signs of mental illness, intellectual disability and substance use disorders, conflict resolution and de-escalation, use-of-force options and alternatives, and the perspectives of people and families with lived experience.
• Patrol officers and supervisors. Penal Code § 13515.27 requires POST to offer a course of at least three consecutive hours for patrol officers and their supervisors on the same subjects, including "appropriate language" with emotionally distressed people.
• Field training officers. Under Penal Code § 13515.28, officers who train new recruits in the field must complete at least eight hours of crisis intervention behavioral health training, within 180 days of assignment for those assigned since 2017.

These are minimums. Many departments require more. In a lawsuit, the gap between what the department's own policy and training required and what officers actually did can be powerful evidence, both against the officers and against the city or county for failure to train.

How California's deadly-force law treats people in crisis

California's deadly-force statute, Penal Code § 835a, speaks directly to disability. The Legislature found that people with physical, mental health, developmental or intellectual disabilities "are significantly more likely to experience greater levels of physical force during police interactions," and that "individuals with disabilities are involved in between one-third and one-half of all fatal encounters" with law enforcement.

The statute allows deadly force only to defend against an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury, or to stop certain dangerous fleeing felons. Officers must "use other available resources and techniques if reasonably safe and feasible," and the analysis includes "the conduct of the officer and the subject leading up to the use of deadly force." In crisis cases, that often means asking whether officers tried to create time and distance, called for a crisis team, used a calm voice and plain commands, or instead rushed toward a frightened person and created the very danger they then responded to. Our guide to police shooting wrongful death claims explains the deadly-force rules in more detail.

Can the ADA apply to a police shooting?

It can. Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act bars public entities from discriminating against people with disabilities. In 2014, the federal appeals court for California, the Ninth Circuit, agreed with "the majority of circuits to have addressed the question that Title II applies to arrests," in a case involving a San Francisco woman with mental illness. The court described two kinds of claims:

• Wrongful arrest: police mistake the effects of a disability for criminal conduct.
• Failure to accommodate: police "fail to reasonably accommodate the person's disability in the course of investigation or arrest," so the person suffers greater harm than others would.

The U.S. Supreme Court took that case in 2015 but did not decide the ADA question, so the Ninth Circuit's rule still governs federal courts in California. An ADA claim runs against the city or county, not individual officers, and it sits alongside the usual Fourth Amendment, wrongful death and Bane Act claims. Accommodation can mean things like waiting, giving more time, keeping distance, or bringing in a crisis clinician when it is safe to do so. Courts look closely at whether an accommodation was reasonable in a fast-moving situation.

Documented California cases

Two Bay Area cases show how these claims play out. Both were brought by the families, and both were handled by other law firms.

• Miles Hall, Walnut Creek. Miles Hall, 23, was shot and killed by Walnut Creek police on June 2, 2019, during a mental health episode, after his family had called for help. In September 2020 the city agreed to pay his family $4 million, KTVU reported; neither the city nor its employees admitted liability. The city also said it was expanding crisis intervention training and would spend about $100,000 on a pilot to expand mobile crisis teams in the county. His parents planned to use the settlement to support the Miles Hall Foundation, NBC Bay Area reported.
• Angelo Quinto, Antioch. This case involved restraint, not a shooting. Angelo Quinto, a 30-year-old Navy veteran, died after Antioch officers restrained him at home following his sister's call for help during a mental health crisis. His mother's lawsuit alleges officers used excessive force, including a knee on his neck, while he was not resisting, NBC News reported. California law now bars agencies from authorizing techniques that create "a substantial risk of positional asphyxia" (Government Code § 7286.5). See our guide to restraint and asphyxia deaths during arrest.

More reported results are collected in our California police brutality settlements and verdicts page. Every case is different, and past results do not predict the outcome of any other case.

Who is responsible for a mental health crisis police shooting, and the deadlines

A family can usually bring claims against the officers who used force and against the city or county that employs them. Federal claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 cover unreasonable force under the Fourth Amendment and, for the agency, policies, customs or failures to train that caused the harm. State claims include wrongful death, battery, negligence and the Bane Act (our Bane Act guide). Qualified immunity can be raised by individual officers on federal claims, but it does not apply to state-law claims or to the ADA claim against the agency; our qualified immunity guide explains why.

The timing rules are strict:

• Six months to present a written government claim to the city, county or State for state-law claims (Government Code § 911.2). Read our six-month claim deadline guide.
• Generally two years for federal § 1983 claims in California, with no claim form required. ADA claims have their own timing rules, which a lawyer should check early.

Close family members, such as a spouse and children, and in some circumstances parents who depended on the person, can bring a wrongful death claim. The estate brings a separate survival claim. When the person survived, he or she can bring the claims directly. If the person is facing criminal charges from the same incident, speak with a lawyer before anyone gives a statement.

What families should do now

1. Write down exactly what you told 911 or the crisis line, when, and what you were told back. Your call is evidence of what the agency knew.
2. Gather proof of the person's diagnosis, medications, prior crisis calls and any earlier 5150 holds. Do not post these details publicly.
3. Do not sign anything or give a recorded statement to the agency or its insurer.
4. Request the coroner's report and the body-camera video. Our guide to autopsy reports, records and video explains the 45-day video rule.
5. Save texts, voicemails and phone video from that day, and ask neighbors to keep theirs.
6. Mark the six-month date on your calendar and talk to a lawyer well before it. We send preservation letters for 911 audio, dispatch records, body-camera video and training files.

If anyone in your family is struggling after this loss, please lean on the people around you and on local crisis services.

How LaCour can help

LaCour Trial Lawyers handles police misconduct and wrongful death in custody cases across California from our Pasadena headquarters and six other offices. Jonathan P. LaCour, founding partner and lead trial counsel, leads these cases, and we speak Spanish. There is no fee unless there is a recovery. Families whose loved one died by suicide in custody may also find our jail suicide guide helpful. Ask for a free, confidential review.

Frequently asked questions

This guide is general information about California and federal law and about public records as of its date. It is not legal advice, and reading it or contacting us does not create an attorney–client relationship. Allegations in lawsuits are claims, not findings. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Attorney advertising.