A former San Diego sheriff's deputy who already pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the 2020 shooting death of an unarmed suspect has been indicted on two federal charges that could put him in prison for life.
A statement posted on the U.S. Department of Justice website said a federal grand jury in San Diego on Friday returned a two-count indictment accusing Aaron Russell of depriving Nicholas Bils of his right to be free from criminal charges. officers who used excessive force and discharged a firearm in connection with a crime of violence.
On Friday, a judge set Russell's bail at $50,000 with restrictions that include limiting his travel and prohibiting him from possessing firearms, City News Service reported.
Bils, 36, was arrested on May 1, 2020, on suspicion of brandishing a golf club at park rangers at Old Town State Park and taken to the downtown jail. He managed to escape from a California State Parks officer's car and fled down Front Street outside the jail.
Russell, who was on his way to work at the jail, saw Bils running and fired five shots. Bils was hit at least four times, including a bullet that entered the left side of his back.
None of the other officers at the scene fired or drew their weapons, according to the Justice Department statement.
Russell resigned within days of the fatal shooting.
The charges carry a possible sentence of life in prison based on a federal judge's application of U.S. sentencing guidelines and other legal factors, according to the statement.
The former deputy had initially been charged with murder by the San Diego County district attorney's office, making him the first police officer in California to be charged as such since the state raised the standard two years ago for when Law enforcement officers can use deadly force. the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
Such force is permitted only when “necessary,” when a life is in imminent danger and non-lethal methods are not available, the law states. Previously, deadly force was allowed when it was “reasonable.”
According to the district attorney's office, Russell admitted in the plea agreement he signed on January 7, 2022, that he “unreasonably believed that I or someone else was in imminent danger of being killed or suffering great bodily injury” when saw Bils fleeing from jail, the Union-Tribune said.
Russell, who was 23 at the time of the shooting and had been a deputy for 18 months, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to one year in jail and three years of probation.
Bils' mother, Kathleen Bils, told NBC 7 that her son was a paranoid schizophrenic who was afraid of authorities, which may have influenced his escape.
The shooting led to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Bils' family, which settled in mid-2022, with San Diego County agreeing to pay the Bils family $8.1 million.
