SANTA ANA – The family of a man shot and killed by an Anaheim officer during a November confrontation has filed a civil rights lawsuit against the officer, the city and the Police Department.

Family members of 29-year-old Adalid Flores, in a complaint filed last week in federal court in Santa Ana, say that Flores was unarmed, had his hands in the air and was surrendering to police when he was shot by Anaheim Officer Lorenzo Uribe in the front yard of a home in the 1300 block of East Street.

“There was no justification for the use of unreasonable and/or excessive force in shooting and killing him within minutes from their initial encounter,” attorney Humberto Guizar wrote in the complaint.

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Update: Suspect sought for assault with deadly weapon is shot, killed by Anaheim police officer Earlier this month, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office cleared Uribe for his role in the shooting, determining that there was “insufficient evidence” that the officer acted improperly.

DA investigators wrote in their report that Uribe and several other officers responding to reports of a man fleeing a traffic collision on the eastbound 91 freeway tracked down a shirtless Flores pacing back and forth in a residential driveway, yelling obscenities.

The officers, in interviews with the DA investigators, described Flores as appearing agitated and said he ignored commands to show his hands, and said that he kept his right hand behind his back and at several points appeared to place his left hand in one of his front pant pockets.

In the minutes leading up to the shooting, the report indicates, the officers disagreed on whether Flores was holding a weapon: One officer told Uribe that Flores was holding a cell phone, while another said he was holding a wallet.

Uribe told the DA investigators that he was sure Flores was holding a weapon.

In his interview with the DA investigators, Uribe described Flores’ demeanor leading up to the shooting as a “coffee pot that’s boiling.” According to the DA report, the officer indicated that he was worried that Flores would harm the officers or civilians at either the home or a nearby restaurant.

According to the report, he recalled yelling at Flores, “Let me see your hands, last time!” four seconds before shooting him three times.

A search following the shooting turned up a cell phone but no weapon, the DA report says.

The lawsuit alleges that Uribe fired at Flores after Flores raised his hands, a scenario not mentioned in the DA report.

The DA report acknowledged the disagreement between officers prior to the shooting about what Flores was holding.

But the DA investigators concluded that they could not “prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Officer Uribe did not have a reasonable belief Flores was armed and posed an immediate danger to the officers or others.”

In response to the lawsuit, Anaheim officials backed the conclusion reached by the DA investigators.

“This was an unfortunate case all around, and our thoughts go out to everyone involved,” Anaheim spokeswoman Lauren Gold said. “We agree with the district attorney’s determination that our officers acted reasonably in response to a clear threat.”