A man shot by bean bags and mauled by a police dog before being arrested is suing the San Diego Police Department, claiming excessive use of force. The man's attorney and a southeast San Diego neighborhood want answers.
On a Friday night in late October, SDPD investigators say they responded to a 911 call about a man threatening a woman with a gun. In a press release, a spokesperson with the department described how, after talking to the victim and witnesses, police then called 31-year-old Marcus Evans out of a home.
The video shows him walking out shirtless, shoeless, wearing basketball shorts and holding his hands up.
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Evans' attorney Dante Pride plans to file a lawsuit, citing excessive use of force against San Diego police.
"He was standing there, hands up, saying, 'Don't shoot.' That's passive resistance," Pride said.
In the video, officers are heard warning Evans they would shoot if he didn't surrender. Evans then sits on the retaining wall in the front yard.
Officers proceed to fire three bean-bag rounds, hitting him.
"These rounds are metal projectiles in a burlap sack fired from a shotgun. These are not the bean bags we played with as kids. These are deadly weapons," Pride said.
Things escalate even more when police officers send a K9 officer after Evans twice. Following that, they arrest him on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and resisting arrest.
Evans was treated at a hospital and is doing OK. He currently cannot work because of his injuries from dog bites.
According to SDPD, Evans was never booked into jail, and no weapon was found.
"I still can't for the life of me understand why they decided that was the moment to escalate the situation to bean bag rounds and K9 officers," Pride said.
On Wednesday, Pride and the Evans family described how Evans' uncle, Anthony, and young cousins were also in the home during the incident.
"They pointed the guns at him. He's a minor. Handcuffed him. Had him out there all that time," Anthony said.
SDPD is investigating the incident. Chief Scott Wahl told NBC 7, in part, he is "committed to exploring how the situation could have been handled differently," and "welcomes conversations about use of force procedures and regularly evaluates them to determine if improvements are needed."
The Evans family is focusing on recovery. For Evans, those include both physical and emotional wounds.
"We will all be in some type of therapy for this. We will all have to go through a long road of recovery," said Glena, Evans' mother.
Several agencies, including the Department of Justice, are investigating
