SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – A former San Diego County sheriff’s deputy accused of fatally shooting an unarmed, fleeing detainee outside the downtown San Diego jail was ordered Wednesday to stand trial on a second-degree murder charge.
Aaron Russell, 24, is charged in the May 1, 2020, death of Nicholas Bils, who was shot multiple times as he was running away from officers, leading to the rare decision to prosecute a law enforcement officer in an officer- involved shooting.
Aaron Russell
Following two days of testimony, which included accounts from several people who witnessed Bils’ flight and the shooting, San Diego Superior Court Judge Theodore Weathers ruled there was enough evidence to proceed to trial, denying a defense request to dismiss the murder count or reduce it to voluntary manslaughter.
SAN DIEGO
A former sheriff’s deputy must stand trial on a murder charge in the shooting death of a man he saw escape from a state parks patrol car near the downtown San Diego jail last spring, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Aaron Russell, 24, has pleaded not guilty in the death of Nicholas Bils, 36, who was shot as he sprinted north on Front Street at B Street on the evening of May 1. The incident was caught on a surveillance camera on Smart Streetlights near the intersection.
Superior Court Judge Theodore Weathers’ decision to order Russell to face trial came at the end of a more than two-day preliminary hearing at the San Diego Central Courthouse.