The family of Tony Garza filed a $20-million wrongful-death claim Thursday against the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, alleging the 44-year-old was shot a dozen times by deputies while he was in the middle of a mental health crisis.
Tony Garza was once a star high school wrestler in Yucca Valley, but later in life, his family said, he didn’t know how to grapple with his mental health issues.
Deputies arrested Garza on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon after he allegedly drove toward them. “These officers shot Mr. Garza dead as he fled through the desert,” Brian Olney, one of the attorneys representing Garza’s family, said Thursday at a news conference. He added that Garza was failed not just by the deputies who fatally shot him but by the courts and a broken mental health system that was repeatedly unable to get Garza the help he needed.
Garza was burning personal items on his property in Yucca Valley on Feb. 5, when deputies responded to a reported box trailer fire, according to his family’s attorneys. When the deputies arrived and tried to make contact, Garza fled in his vehicle, theGarza led deputies on a 35-minute chase from Highway 62 to Interstate 10, with him jumping out of his truck and fleeing on foot, near the Whitewater Cutoff, according to witness video.
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