Palm Springs will pay $125K to bystander shot by police

The city of Palm Springs will pay $125,000 to settle a lawsuit from a bystander who police accidentally shot while he was walking his dog across a neighborhood street two years ago.

Benjamin Meza, 51, dismissed his lawsuit last week as a result of the settlement, according to federal court records. Meza spoke publicly about the shooting for the first time on Tuesday, questioning whether police were too quick to use deadly force.

"I'm sure they had a valid reason for shooting," Meza told The Desert Sun. "But I just feel like … sometimes people have the perception that police are just trigger-happy. I just don't know anymore."

Meza was hit in the leg by a stray bullet on the evening of Jan. 9, 2013, as he crossed South Camino Real, a residential street in the Warm Sands Neighborhood. The bullet was shot by one of three police officers who opened fire during a violent clash with a burglary suspect down the street.

City Attorney Doug Holland said Palm Springs agreed to settle the suit because Meza was an "innocent bystander," who suffered considerable pain and was left on crutches for nearly a year. The settlement money will come from city coffers, which maintain funds for liability expenses.

Despite the settlement, Holland said city officials still believe that officers acted appropriately during this shooting. The police department said it could not comment.

The police officers who fired their guns in this shooting were Chad Nordman, Nick Barth and Troy Castillo, the latter of whom retired from the department shortly after the shooting. It is unclear which officer fired the bullet that struck Meza.

Meza said he was walking his dog, "Misty," an elderly golden retriever, on the night of the shooting. They took their normal route, walking north on Camino Real, using a footbridge to cross the wash into Warm Sands. Soon after the bridge, Meza spotted police cars parked in the neighborhood, but thought little of it.

What Meza didn't know at the time was that these officers were on a stakeout for Juan Villanueva Lopez Jr., a suspect in a series of burglaries. After Meza walked further up the street, the officers attempted to apprehend Lopez as he climbed into a vehicle. Lopez refused to surrender and punched the gas, causing the vehicle to lurch backwards, knocking the policemen to the ground.

The officers, who were injured, opened fire as the vehicle sped away. Lopez escaped, but was caught hours later after a standoff in Cathedral City. He confessed to assaulting the officers with a deadly weapon last year.

Meza said he was farther up Camino Real, crossing the street at Camino Parocela, when he heard the gunshots. Misty looked back towards the shots, curious. Meza pulled hard on her leash, trying to lead her out of the roadway. As he pulled, Meza felt a felt a sharp pain in his leg. He assumed he had twisted his ankle while yanking the leash.

At the curbside, Meza checked his dog for injuries, but found none.

"Then I looked down, and saw there was a hole in my pants. I thought — 'What?'" Meza said. "Then I looked at my hand and saw blood."

After realizing he had been shot, Meza flagged down a police officer, waving with a bloody hand. The officer called an ambulance, then waited with Meza until the medics arrived.

At the hospital, doctors told Meza that the bullet struck the front of his shin. If it had been an inch or two to the side, it would have shattered his bone, creating a much more serious injury.

Today, Meza's leg is marked with two nickel-sized circular scars — an entrance wound and an exit wound. They are a constant reminder that the shooting could have been worse, he said.

"I don't walk down there with the dog anymore," Meza said. "It is just too weird."

When interviewed on Tuesday, Meza said he had no idea which officer shot him. However, he mentioned that he was particularly concerned by the actions of one of the officers who had fired his gun in another shooting only two years beforehand.

"I know that one of the police officers shot someone prior," Meza said. "I thought that was odd. Maybe they are just too gung ho? I don't know."

Meza was talking about Nordman, who was one of two officers who fatally shot Cpl. Allan DeVillena II in the downtown Palm Springs parking garage in November 2012. Prosecutors have cleared officers of all wrongdoing in that shooting, but the DeVillena family insists the shooting was unjustified. A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed in federal court.

Nordman is one of four Coachella Valley police officers who have fired their guns at least twice in the line of duty since 2009. Many officers go decades without ever firing their service weapon at a suspect.

The Palm Springs Police Department — like most police departments — has a policy that discourages shooting at a moving vehicle, which the policy states is "rarely effective."

Sgt. Harvey Reed, a spokesman for the police department, said he could not comment on the Meza settlement because of a temporary court order that forbids the police department from discussing any police shootings. The court order stems from a separate court case, in which the Palm Springs police union is attempting to stop the public identification of police officers who fire their guns in the line of duty.

Reporter Brett Kelman can be reached by phone at (760) 778-4642, by email at brett.kelman@desertsun.com, or on Twitter @TDSbrettkelman.