Buena Park is set to pay out $3.5 million after a jury found two police officers used excessive force when they shot and killed a 19-year-old man in 2019 when he was pulled over with expired tags after robbing the Shell gas station he worked at.
David Patrick Sullivan, whose family said was suffering from a mental health crisis, was killed on Aug. 19, 2019 after he was shot four times by police officers when he attempted to escape after he was pulled over driving a stolen Range Rover from his work on Gilbert St.
Bobby Colon and Jennifer Tran, the two officers involved in the shooting, were cleared of any criminal wrongdoing by the Orange County District Attorney in 2020.
But this week a civil jury found they shared about 40% of the blame for what happened.
To review the DA’s findings and videos of the incident, click here.
Humberto Guizar, an attorney for David’s mother, Deanna, said in a Thursday phone interview that justice has finally been delivered to David’s family and that they accept the verdict.
“David Sullivan was a good person. He was not your typical kid. He was having a mental crisis when this happened,” Guizar said. “He was the kind of person who helped everybody.”
Guizar said David worked so he could help pay for room and board when his sister went to college, worked in the cafeteria in high school to help his family and took care of his grandfather when he got cancer.
Sgt. Chad Weaver, a spokesman for the Buena Park Police Department, and Bruce Praet, the lawyer for the city in the case, both did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday morning.
Deanna has been calling for local leaders to take a closer look at the case ever since the DA’s office issued its report clearing the officers of any wrongdoing.
[Read: Calls Intensify for DA to Reopen Probe into Buena Park Police Shooting of 19-Year-Old David Sullivan]
“David was just 19 years old when he was murdered by the Buena Park Police Dept. in the City of Fullerton. He was unarmed,” said Deanna Sullivan through tears at a county supervisor’s meeting in Oct. 2020. “My son died as a result of their panicked actions. They did not do their job that day.”
David stole about $2,000 worth of property and money from the Shell gas station he worked at shortly before sunrise and drove off in a customer’s 2011 Range Rover, according to a report by DA investigators.
Colon and Tran pulled him over just before noon when they noticed the Range Rover’s expired tags, at which point David claimed the car was his cousin’s and he’d borrowed it as he cooperated with officers.
To watch the video of the incident, click here.
After Colon and Tran were warned by their dispatch that the car had been reported stolen, they asked David to get out of the car, at which point he turned the car back on and stepped on the gas.
“Sullivan reversed across the driveway onto the greenbelt where he ran over a traffic sign and then collided with a large palm tree. After striking the palm tree, the Range Rover ricocheted off the palm tree and stuck a civilian vehicle traveling southbound on N. Gilbert Street,” investigators wrote.
David got out of the car after the crash, screaming “F*** you!” at the officers and began running in their direction before veering to the right as Colon and Tran shot at him.
After the first few shots, David turned and began running at Colon and Tran before he was shot again and fell to the ground, with the sheriff’s autopsy reporting he died from one of the bullets striking his heart and both lungs.
Altogether, the officers fired seven shots, four of which hit David.
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