San Diego Pays $30 Million Over Fatal Police Shooting of a Fleeing Teenager
After trial: Settlement approved by unanimous vote of the San Diego City Council, with no admission of liability. It is not subject to appeal, and the city has approved and funded it.
The Wilson family's 16-year-old son was shot and killed by a San Diego police officer on January 28, 2025, seconds after he ran into the officer's path while fleeing gunfire from another teenager at Santa Fe Depot. His parents sued the City of San Diego and the officer in San Diego Superior Court in June 2025, alleging the officer fired twice into the boy's back without warning, in violation of his civil rights and of department use of force standards. The San Diego City Council voted unanimously on December 9, 2025 to approve a $30 million settlement, with the city paying $5 million and the rest drawn from a public liability fund shared by member municipalities. San Diego attorneys King Aminpour and Michael VanGalio worked the case alongside lead attorney Nicholas Rowley.
What happened
On the night of January 28, 2025, the Wilson family's 16-year-old son was standing on the trolley platform at Santa Fe Depot in downtown San Diego, around 8:50 p.m., when someone nearby pulled a gun and opened fire on him. The teenager ran. Security camera footage later released by police showed him fleeing the platform and out through a corridor toward Kettner Boulevard.
San Diego Police Officer Daniel Gold, a two-year member of the department, was nearby responding to an unrelated report of an assault on a trolley at America Plaza Station when he heard the gunshots and ran toward them. As he approached the corridor, the teenager suddenly emerged, running, feet in front of him. Gold fired twice within seconds of the encounter, striking the boy in the back. Attorneys for the family, describing Gold's body-worn camera footage, said he shot before he announced who he was and without any warning. The teenager was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead a little more than half an hour later.
Police said afterward that officers found a handgun concealed under his clothing near his right thigh. Surveillance and body camera footage showed he never drew it, brandished it, or fired it during the encounter, and investigators said there was no indication he had fired it at the other youth either. Rowley told reporters he did not believe the gun had any bullets in it and said the teenager had been carrying it after being badly beaten more than once, saying the boy, who was half-Black, had been targeted by local gangs. The teenager who fired the first shots on the platform was identified as another 16-year-old and was arrested on February 6.
The boy's parents sued the City of San Diego and Officer Gold in San Diego Superior Court in June 2025. The complaint alleged Gold opened fire instantly and without warning, in violation of the teenager's civil rights, California law, and San Diego police use of force standards. The case moved quickly by civil litigation standards: filed in June, it reached a tentative settlement by late September.
The San Diego City Council voted unanimously on December 9, 2025 to approve the $30 million settlement, with $5 million paid by the city and the remaining $25 million drawn from a public liability fund the city shares with other municipalities. Attorneys for the family said it is believed to be the largest settlement ever paid in a police shooting case in the United States, larger than what Minneapolis paid the family of George Floyd in 2020.
Rowley, the family's lead attorney, called the shooting a catastrophic failure of policing and said the teenager was not a threat when Gold opened fire. Rowley said his firm teamed with San Diego attorneys King Aminpour and Michael VanGalio on the case. At the time the council approved the payout, Gold remained on administrative duty and the San Diego County District Attorney's office had an open review of the shooting.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.San Diego Union-Tribune (Teri Figueroa), Dec 8, 2025, republished by Police1·Archived copy
- 2.San Diego Union-Tribune (Teri Figueroa), Dec 2025, syndicated
- 3.KPBS, Dec 9, 2025·Archived copy
- 4.Times of San Diego, Dec 9, 2025·Archived copy
- 5.ABC 10News·Archived copy
- 6.Times of San Diego, Feb 21, 2025·Archived copy
- 7.Times of San Diego, Sept 4, 2026·Archived copy
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