When a man noticed another man on his property he phoned an emergency number for his local police station for help. The police said they would send out an officer and yet failed to send anyone. The man was subsequently struck and killed by the trespasser, a former mental patient, and now the family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit naming the police department for negligence, as reported by CBS San Francisco.
The deceased man's wife and two sons filed the suit in Alameda County Superior Court on November 15. They allege that P.C., 67, was killed just outside of his Berkeley Hills home on February 18 as a result of police negligence in handling a deadly situation.
The man charged with P.C.'s murder, D.J.D., 23, has been found mentally incompetent to stand trial.
D.J.D.'s attorney, Brian Bloom, said that his client is currently being held in a state mental hospital. On January 25 D.J.D. will be back in court for a progress report in regards to his mental health.
The suit states that the family, along with P.C., noted D.J.D. trespassing on their property at approximately 8:45 p.m. on February 18. P.C. called the police, using the Berkeley Police Department emergency number, and asked that they send an officer to their home right away for help.
Allegedly a dispatcher told P.C. that he would send an officer "soon." However, according to the suit, the dispatcher knew officers would not respond, and therefore acted with "gross negligence and in bad faith."
Attorney R. Lewis Van Blois filed the suit on behalf of the family. Van Blois told reporters that though there were "plenty of officers" at their disposal that night the priority for officers was to track disturbances during Occupy Wall Street as marchers were heading from Oakland into Berkeley.
According to Van Blois an officer, that overheard P.C.'s call, offered to go over to the house and assist the family – but his superiors told him not to.
Van Blois said that the department didn't have to send someone, but they shouldn't have told P.C. that help was on the way.
As P.C. was expecting the police, and in the past officers had difficulty finding the home, he went outside. The suit states that P.C. "would not have gone outside if he did not believe that a trained and armed professional police officer was approaching his home and would arrive at any moment or was in the street near the home but needed assistance to find the driveway."
Once P.C. was outside, attempting to flag down a non-existent officer with his flashlight, D.J.D. struck him with a flowerpot.
P.C.'s wife, A.C., assuming that the second man with her husband was a police officer, saw D.J.D. attacking P.C.
Berkeley Police Chief M.M. said that a non-emergency police number was called on the evening of February 18. It was later, at 9:01 p.m., that the emergency call was received on the correct line.
The suit states otherwise, that the number P.C. called is the one citizens have been instructed to use to report threats to life and property.
C.C., P.C.'s son, told reporters, "My father called the correct Berkeley police emergency number that is listed on their website." C.C. added that citizens should find Chief M.M.'s remarks "very disturbing" and "should be concerned as well."
D.J.D.'s parents said that their son has suffered with mental illness for over four years. However, they have been unable to get him enrolled into a treatment program permanently.
Loosing a loved one in any scenario is difficult. However, loosing someone in a wrongful death is grounds for a lawsuit. Contact a personal injury lawyer for help!