Family of man killed by Oakland police to sue after seeing video

The family of a man killed by Oakland police has decided to sue the city after watching police video of the deadly encounter.

Jamon Hicks, the Beverly Hills attorney who represents the mother and three children of Demouria Hogg, said his clients were “heartbroken” after watching video taken by several police body cameras during the June 6 incident.

It began when police officers responded to reports of an unresponsive driver in a BMW on the Interstate 580 Lakeshore off-ramp, with a gun in his passenger seat.

Police say 30-year-old Hogg did not react when they tried for more than an hour to wake him, firing beanbag rounds at the car and yelling commands through a loudspeaker. Hogg didn’t wake up until officers broke the driver’s side window with a metal pipe, and then tased and shot him when he reached toward his weapon.

Hicks said the footage he saw shows that less than 10 seconds passes between the moment police break the car window and the time the gunshot goes off. He said the video raises questions about whether the lethal force was justified. He helped Hogg’s family file a wrongful-death claim against the city on July 7, seeking more than $10,000 in damages for emotional distress and civil rights violations.

He believes the body-camera footage will only help bolster their case.

“I’m definitely concerned — tactically speaking — by what I saw in the video,” Hicks said. “He was completely knocked out.”

Hicks said the officer shot Hogg before Hogg had time to reach for a weapon. He plans to file the lawsuit by Sept. 8.

Members of Hogg’s family could not be reached for comment Monday. They asked to see footage of the shooting after learning that Oakland police had shown video of two other fatal encounters by police — the Aug. 12 shooting of Nate Wilks and the July 19 building-wedge death of Richard Linyard — to a select group of media.

“Once those other videos were released, we called,” Hicks said, adding that the police hadn’t yet offered to show the family footage of Hogg’s death.

Police have withheld the name of the officer who fatally shot Hogg, but that officer’s attorney defended the shooting.

“There’s no problem with the shooting as far as I’m concerned,” said attorney Steven Betz. “My client did nothing wrong, and there’s all these conspiracy theories out there that she did.”

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: rswan@sfchronicle.com

Twitter: @rachelswan