A federal judge ruled Thursday that two Bexar County deputies did not act reasonably when they shot and killed a man who appeared to surrender, leaving them still on the hook in a civil-rights lawsuit over the incident.

In his 25-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman denied a motion for summary judgment from Deputies Greg Vasquez and Robert Sanchez, who shot Gilbert Flores on Aug. 28, 2015, as he had his hands up, but with a knife still in one hand.

“Based on the circumstances facing Vasquez and Sanchez right before they shot Flores and construing the facts in favor of plaintiffs, the court finds that a reasonable officer would have concluded that Flores, who was stationary for several seconds and put his hands in the air while remaining otherwise motionless, was no longer resisting and had signaled surrender,” Pitman wrote. “Therefore, the deputies’ use of deadly force was not reasonable.”

Pitman, however, gave Bexar County a victory by finding that the plaintiffs — Flores’ relatives — could not show that the county’s policy and its training were inadequate and contributed to the shooting, but rejected the deputies’ claim that they are entitled to qualified immunity, a long-standing legal principle that often shields public officials from liability.

The judge found there was enough evidence to let the case go before a jury, but only the deputies would be at trial, not the county because no other plaintiffs’ claims remain against it in the case.

The county’s insurer may have to pay a judgment if the deputies lose and the jury assesses damages, according to Ed Schweninger, head of the civil division for the district attorney’s office, which represents county employees in litigation.

While agreeing with the deputies that their conduct should be judged based on the circumstances that confronted them, Pitman saw a big problem with the final actions they took — shooting Flores when he did not appear to be an imminent threat.

The county’s lawyers say it did nothing wrong and still argue that the deputies acted appropriately under “the totality of the circumstances.”

One of the attorneys for the deputies, Charles Frigerio, told the judge during a pretrial conference Thursday that the deputies plan to appeal. As a result, Pitman canceled the upcoming trial that had been scheduled for Oct. 23.

“We’re saying, as a matter of law, that we should have qualified immunity,” Frigerio said afterward.

“They (the plaintiffs) couldn’t show we had an unconstitutional policy that caused the deputies to shoot,” Albert Lopez, a private lawyer helping defend the county, said after the hearing. “We haven’t done anything wrong.”

Attorney Thomas J. Henry, who represents Flores’ widow, Maritza Amador, and Flores’ parents, said “I’m of the firm belief we will be one day in the courtroom letting jurors decide about the officers’ unconstitutional use of deadly force.

“We firmly believe that this will get to a jury and the Floreses want this to be decided by a jury,” he added. “It’s a very important constitutional issue. … Today’s ruling allows both sides to further evaluate and we’ll be making some determinations on what steps we will take.”

Juan Contreras, president of the Deputy Sheriff’s Association of Bexar County, said that in lawsuits over a deputy’s on-the-job conduct, if the county is dismissed but the deputy remains as a defendant, the county continues to pay for the deputy’s lawyer.

And, “if there’s a settlement (or a judgment against the deputy), the county pays for it,” Contreras said. “The deputy, it doesn’t come out of their pocket, as long as they were acting during the course of duty.”

Schweninger confirmed the county continues to pay for lawyers who represent the deputies.

“It is true that county employees are entitled to insurance for actions that arise in performance of their duties,” Schweninger said. “It’s not an unlimited amount of insurance. It’s got a cap.”

He did not know the exact amount but said he’s certain it’s over $1 million.

Deputies Vasquez and Sanchez shot Flores, 41, outside his parents’ far North Bexar County home after they were summoned there for a domestic disturbance.

By the time the deputies arrived, Flores had beat up Amador and struck their infant daughter.

Flores then was involved in a standoff outside the home in which he tried to stab one of the deputies, blocked the Taser leads one of the deputies fired at him, and kept telling them that he wanted “suicide by cop.”

Flores was a convicted felon on parole who’d tried to get officers from another department to shoot him before, though Bexar County’s legal team argues the deputies did not know about his past at the time.

Flores also approached one of the deputies’ police SUV, which had the keys in the ignition and an AR-15 inside.

While the deputies argued in their court filings that the standoff had other “deadly force scenarios” during which they could have fired at Flores, he was not shot until he turned toward the deputies, walked some steps, stopped and put his hands up. He had a knife in one hand that he had taken out of his waistband.

Much of the encounter was recorded by two separate witnesses using their cellphones. The first video that became public was broadcast by KSAT-TV that shows Flores raised his hands before he was shot. But in that video, a light pole blocks the view of one of Flores’ hands.

The second video, released months later by the county, shows the confrontation from a closer distance, and gives an unobstructed view that showed Flores had an object in his hand, was nearly 30 feet away from the deputies and that the officers turned to each other in agreement to fire at Flores.

According to depositions in the case, the deputies decided they would not let the incident drag on and that they would follow a supervisor’s commands to “do whatever you have to do.”

The depositions show two supervisors who were not at the scene relayed orders over police radio to the deputies, with one superior telling Vasquez and Sanchez to “do whatever you need to do” to prevent Flores from re-entering the house to hurt anyone else or getting into the police SUV.

“He testified he didn’t tell them to shoot anybody,” attorney Lopez said of the supervisor. “They (the supervisors) were giving orders on the information they knew at the time and the possibilities. … Unfortunately, this guy had a knife and the officers had to use their discretion based on what they saw at the scene.”

An internal investigation cleared the deputies, and a grand jury declined to indict them. Frigerio said the deputies, who had been on desk duty following the shooting until the grand jury cleared them, remain on regular duty.

gconteras@express-news.net