SANTA ANA – The fate of a civil rights lawsuit tied to a fatal 2012 police shooting that contributed to unrest and riots in Anaheim is in the hands of a federal jury.

Deliberations began Friday afternoon at the Santa Ana federal courthouse over whether Anaheim Officer Nick Bennallack used excessive force when he shot and killed Manuel Diaz, 25, during a short foot chase.

Dale Galipo, the lead attorney representing Diaz’s mother, Genevieve Huizar, told jurors during his closing arguments Friday afternoon that Bennallack overreacted by shooting an unarmed Diaz.

“Somebody has to police the police,” Galipo told jurors. “Somebody has to say, ‘You have an important job, we get that, but there have to be limits on when you can kill someone.’ ”

Bennallack, during courtroom testimony last week, said the chase began when he and a partner spotted Diaz leaning into a car in an alley on Anna Drive. The officer said he suspected that Diaz was taking part in a drug deal, and he and his partner decided to get out of their vehicle and approach him.

Diaz ran, and the officers chased him during an approximately 8- to 10-second pursuit into an adjacent apartment complex. Bennallack testified that Diaz was ignoring commands to stop, was reaching with both hands to his waistband and was glancing back at the officer.

During the chase’s final seconds, after Diaz and Bennallack had turned the corner of the complex into a courtyard facing Anna Drive, the officer testified that Diaz pulled something out of his front waistband and began turning toward him.

Bennallack fired two shots, hitting Diaz in the right buttocks and the back-right side of his head. The officer acknowledged during his testimony that he couldn’t see Diaz’s hands or a weapon when he opened fire, but said that as he was shooting he saw a dark item in the air going over a nearby fence, which he believed was a weapon thrown by Diaz.

“I didn’t see his hands and didn’t want to wait to see his hands, because I believed for 100 percent certainty he had a firearm,” testified Bennallack, who added that he still believes that Diaz was armed, despite police never locating a weapon.

A cell phone belonging to Diaz was found near his body. Galipo speculated that the phone was the item that Bennallack saw in the air, but the officer in his testimony disputed that.

Bennallack testified that he recalled Diaz turning toward his left. However, Bennallack’s partner, several witnesses and forensic evidence all indicated that Diaz actually turned toward his right, attorneys for both sides acknowledged.

Anna Ventura, an Anna Drive resident who witnessed the shooting, testified that Diaz had one hand on a fence before the officer shot him, with his other hand holding onto his pants.

Steven Rothans, an attorney representing Bennallack and the city of Anaheim, told jurors that the shooting wouldn’t have happened if Diaz had cooperated with the officers rather than run. He also noted that the chase took place a neighborhood in the heart of territory claimed by the city’s most-active street gang.

“This is not a video simulation, it was real life on Anna Drive, with someone who looked like a gang member, someone who didn’t listen to commands, someone who brought them into an enclosed courtyard area,” Rothans told the jurors. “You wait until you see the gun, it is too late.”

The death of Diaz was the latest fatal shooting involving police officers that touched off days of protests in Anaheim that culminated in a riot in the city’s downtown area.

The Orange County District Attorney’s Office cleared Bennallack of criminal wrongdoing. Diaz’s mother filed the federal civil lawsuit, leading to a 2014 trial in which jurors rejected the excessive-force claim.

A federal appeals court threw out that verdict, describing the trial as a “runaway case,” in which Diaz’s gang background and drug ties were improperly discussed. That appeals court ruling cleared the way for the latest trial.