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.
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Russell is the first law enforcement officer in California to be charged with murder since the state raised the standard last year for when peace officers can use deadly force. The San Diego County district attorney’s office pointed to that law change in deciding to charge Russell.
Prosecutors contend Russell committed second-degree murder.
His defense attorney, Rick Pinckard, argued Wednesday that the use of force was justified. He said his client “perceived an imminent threat” from Bils, who was fleeing custody and running toward traffic stopped at the intersection.
“Is it reasonable for a deputy in that same situation to see the imminent threat of a possible carjacking, robbery, kidnapping, whatever a violent act by a violent desperate escaping individual is that reasonable?” Pinckard said. “The defense would submit that yes, it is.”
and the shooting.
While what prompted Russell to open fire remains unclear, his attorney, Richard Pinckard, asked one witness, San Diego Police Department Sgt.
Andrew Tafoya, whether the video footage shows Bils running toward an occupied car as he fled.
Tafoya testified that he thought Bils was running next to the vehicle, rather than toward it.
Though Bils wasn t carrying any weapons, Pinckard noted he had only managed to slip the cuffs off of one of his wrists. He asked Tafoya whether Bils may have been holding onto the dangling cuff in his hand as he ran from
the scene, but Tafoya answered that he couldn t come to a conclusion one way or another.
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