The attorney representing the family of a suicidal man fatally shot by Santa Maria Police in 2016 is seeking to overturn the dismissal of a federal lawsuit, alleging officers used excessive force and violated the decedent's constitutional rights.

The appeal was filed Nov. 30 in the case of Javier Garcia Gaona Jr., who was shot and killed July 20, 2016, after a 40-minute standoff with officers.

During the standoff, officers tried to negotiate with Gaona, who held a knife to his throat at the intersection of Enos and South Broadway. Officers deployed several rounds of less lethal ammunition before shooting Gaona after he reportedly ran toward officers.

Autopsy results showed Gaona had 14 bullet wounds, as well as large amounts of meth and amphetamine in his body at the time of his death. In April 2017, the Santa Barbara County District Attorney's Office ruled the shooting to be a justifiable homicide.

After Gaona's death, attorneys William Schmidt and Eric Schweitzer filed a federal lawsuit in 2017 accusing the city of Santa Maria of unlawful seizure, failure to train police, negligence resulting in wrongful death and a violation of Gaona’s constitutional rights, including unlawful use of excessive force in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth amendments of the U.S. Constitution.

The lawsuit also alleges that officers failed to use crisis-intervention tactics for the mentally unstable.

Bruce Praet, a contract attorney representing the city of Santa Maria and its police department, argued in July that, “the officers’ use of force was objectively reasonable,” and that the officers “are entitled to qualified immunity,” which protects government officials from liability for civil damages, as their conduct does not violate clearly established constitutional rights that a reasonable person would have known.