Mistrial declared for ex-San Diego sheriff's deputy charged with shooting unarmed man

SAN DIEGO (CN) — After more than a week of jury deliberation, a mistrial was declared in the case of a former San Diego County sheriff’s deputy who was charged with shooting an unarmed man outside of San Diego’s downtown jail in 2020.

“It’s not a joyful outcome and even if we had won it wouldn’t have been a joyful outcome,” said Richard Pinckard of Bobbitt Pinckard and Fields, APC, the defendant’s attorney after a mistrial was announced. “A man lost his life and that’s something my client will never forget.”

After jurors announced they were hopelessly deadlocked and a mistrial was announced, prosecutors announced they would seek to retry the case.

Attorneys for the federal government declined to comment.

Aaron Russell shocked fellow officers when he fatally shot an unarmed man named Nicholas Bils outside San Diego’s downtown jail because the man he shot wasn’t a threat to anyone, an attorney for the federal government said during opening arguments on May 13.

On May 1, 2020, Bils was hitting golf balls in San Diego’s Old Town State Park with his off-leash dog when he was approached by a California State Parks officer. In the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, the state of California closed state parks to slow the spread of the virus, Seth Askins, an attorney for the federal government, told the jury at a San Diego federal court.

Bils ran and allegedly brandished his golf club at the officer before he was arrested and taken to the city’s downtown detention facility. As the officer pulled into the facility, Bils slipped out of his handcuffs, opened the officer’s car door and ran down a closed city street past then-sheriff’s deputy Russell and another officer.

Without conferring with other law enforcement officers or even warning them or Bils, Russell raised his gun with one arm while clutching his lunch in the other and fired five times, hitting Bils in the back and through his heart, Askins said.

Three other law enforcement officers were at the scene. Russell was the only one to draw his weapon and shoot.

“They were shocked when they heard the gunshots. They never even thought to shoot Mr. Bils. It wasn’t even a close call,” Askins said about the other officers on the scene, who instead expected they were going to apprehend Bils after a chase.

A federal grand jury indicted Russell and charged him with depriving Bils of his right to be free from officers using excessive force and discharging a firearm in relation to a crime of violence in May 2024.

Law enforcement officers are trained to only use deadly force when there’s an imminent danger of a person killing someone or the officer themselves. By killing Bils, who was unarmed and running away, Russell disregarded his own training.

“You can’t shoot an unarmed man in the back just for trying to run away,” Askins said.

Bullets from Russell’s gun were found lodged in and around a nearby fire station, he added.

Russell apparently did not perceive Bils as a threat because, after shooting him, he holstered his gun, jogged over to where Bils fell in the street, put down his lunch, put on a face mask and never mentioned to other officers that he thought Bils might have a weapon.

“This wasn’t an accidental shooting,” Askins said. “Rather, this was a willful killing by a law enforcement officer who shot an unarmed man for trying to run away.”

The situation leading up to Bils’ killing was tense, and jurors had to “take the totality of everything happening” and look through the perspective of the participants, Pinckard said.

The officer who arrested Bils didn’t simply tell him to leave the park or issue him a ticket for being there — he was being taken to jail because he threatened an officer, he added.

When he ran from the officer’s car, he had one arm cocked toward his chest in a “cross body drawing motion” while holding one part of his handcuffs in his hand, he added.

“The evidence will show that the training officers get is to be cognizant of the hands. Watch the hands. It’s the hands that will kill you,” Pinckard said.

Other officers that day were not adequately paying attention to the situation, he said. Instead, one officer was delayed in responding to Bils’ flight because they were figuring out where to put their lunchbox down, he added.

“That’s the perspective, that’s the context,” Pinckard said.

In 2022, Russell pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter for shooting Bils. He was sentenced to a year in jail and three years’ probation.

Bils’ family also filed a wrongful death lawsuit, which was settled in 2022 with San Diego County agreeing to pay $8.1 million.

U.S. District Judge Todd W. Robinson, a Donald Trump appointee, presided over the trial.