Vanguard News Desk Editor
RIO LINDA, CA – Longtime Los Angeles civil rights attorney V. James DeSimone this week said a Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputy has been identified as shooting and killing a “naked, bleeding, man in the throes of a mental health crisis” in a new court filing.
Deputy Daniel Benander, revealed DeSimone in a statement, “fired the lethal shots that killed Christopher Gilmore earlier this year. Benander is being added as a defendant in the lawsuit filed on behalf of the children and sister of Christopher Gilmore.”
DeSimone, of V. James DeSimone Law, and Sacramento litigator Daniel Del Rio, of Del Rio & Caraway, originally filed the lawsuit July 16 in Sacramento County Superior Court against Sacramento County and several unnamed deputies.
The complaint noted, “Without repositioning or taking cover, within seconds (Benander) fired at least three lethal rounds and killed (Gilmore),” who was “not posing an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to anyone at the time he was shot and killed. DOES 3-10 failed to intervene and stop the unjustified use of excessive force.”
The suit laid blame not only on deputies who participated in the killing of Gilmore, but Sacramento County, Sheriff Jim Cooper, Undersheriff Mike Ziegler and Assistant Sheriff Matthew Petersen.
The pleading charges Cooper, Ziegler and Petersen “failed to impose adequate discipline on their Deputies who wrongfully killed people, or who committed other types of excessive force, creating a culture of impunity within the SCSO that encourages such violence and incidents of unreasonable force against the public and has failed to impose adequate discipline, consequences, or corrective action where obvious training deficiencies exist.”
The complaint, according to the plaintiff’s statement, charges a home security video shows the fatal shooting the morning of March 23 (of) Gilmore, 38, who had been cutting himself.”
The attorney’s statement noted Gilmore “emerged from his garage holding the small blade he’d used. Gilmore held it by his waist and never pointed or waved it at deputies, and he never approached them, even after he was shot six times by a deputy with ‘less lethal’ projectiles at close range.”
The statement adds “video shows that Gilmore turned his back to the projectiles and stumbled down the driveway, staying alongside a parked pickup truck, in an effort to avoid being hit. His sister, Bobbie Gilmore, was calling to him from across the street and believes he was trying to get to her for help.”
But, said the family lawsuit, Deputy Benander “fired three live rounds at Gilmore, who collapsed and rolled into the street,” adding “deputies did not approach the mortally wounded man to render aid, even though the small blade had landed several feet away in the street. An ambulance arrived about two minutes later and Gilmore was pronounced dead.”
“A review of the bodycams confirms this was an excessive, unnecessary use of deadly force. Mr. Gilmore posed no threat to Deputy Benander or the others who responded to the medical aid call,” said DeSimone, who is representing some of Gilmore’s family, including two of his four children and his sister Bobbie Gilmore.
The attorney added, “The video evidence makes it clear that Mr. Gilmore was not advancing toward anyone, nor did he pose an immediate threat that would warrant deadly force. This tragedy underscores the urgent need for law enforcement agencies to implement proper training and protocols for de-escalating situations involving individuals in crisis, rather than resorting to unnecessary and deadly violence.”
The 24-page filing lists six causes of action.
