The city will pay $1 million to the family of a San Jose man who was shot by police after being suspected of several crimes and later attacked by a K-9.
On Tuesday, the City Council approved a monetary award for David Tovar Jr.’s father and two children.
The settlement concludes a civil lawsuit filed against San Jose over what happened to Tovar Jr., then 27, on January 21, 2021.
Police said they shot Tovar, who was unarmed at the time, as he was leaving the Villa Fairlane Apartment Complex because he was a “person of interest” in a homicide and shootings in Gilroy, wanted for weapons violations in San Jose, and a shooting at Morgan Hill’s Galvan Park on Jan. 5.
Furthermore, then-Acting Police Chief David Tindall stated that an officer observed Tovar reaching into his waistband and pulling out what the officer “believed to be the butt of a handgun,” even though it later turned out to be a screwdriver.
Tindall stated that police gave Tovar “multiple commands to show his hands,” but he did not comply.
Despite the allegations, Tovar’s family claimed he had never been charged with the crimes.
Police shot Tovar 15 times and sent in a K-9 to bite him.
An autopsy report revealed that he died from multiple police gunshot wounds, but his body was covered in dog-bite lacerations.
Tovar’s attorneys, Adante Pointer and Patrick Buelna, filed a wrongful death suit four months after his death, claiming that killing him was unnecessary and that his “last moments were a painful, agonising, and torturous death.”
In July 2022, the Santa Clara County District Attorney cleared all officers of criminal wrongdoing.
In September 2024, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila determined that the police dog bite, which lasted 2 minutes and 40 seconds, was excessive.
“A K-9 attack of this duration, while the suspect lay wounded and nearly motionless, is without precedent,” the judge stated in his decision.
Earlier this year, San Jose paid $1.6 million to another man accused of assisting his girlfriend in stealing tequila after a K-9 bit his neck for 1 minute and shredded his windpipe.
His lawyer stated that this was the second-highest K-9 award in California.
