SANTA ANA – A federal jury on Thursday rejected claims that the fatal 2012 police shooting of 25-year-old Manuel Diaz – which helped spark a series of protests in Anaheim – was an excessive use of force by officers.

Diaz’s mother said she plans to appeal the decision of the six-man, two-woman jury.

One of the jurors said that on Anna Drive, where the shooting happened, police could reasonably expect that a man dressed like a gang member and running from them could have a gun. The neighborhood is claimed by an Anaheim gang that was at the center of a multiagency firearms and narcotics investigation.

The jury was instructed to focus only on what Officer Nick Bennallack knew at the time he pulled the trigger, and jury foreman Mark Ross said that was key to deciding the case. The context of the shooting made it reasonable for Bennallack to believe his life and the lives of others were in danger, he said.

“He stated that he was in fear for his life,” Ross said. “You have to look at the totality of everything. How things transpired from beginning to end.”

On the afternoon he died, Diaz was talking to a man in a vehicle and another person in an alley. When he saw police officers on patrol approaching them, he turned and ran.

Officers chased Diaz, who ran into the courtyard of an apartment complex. Bennallack shot, he told the court, as Diaz began to turn toward him while concealing his hands.

Diaz was shot in the buttocks and head. No gun was found at the scene. A defense attorney for Bennallack and the city of Anaheim said it’s possible Diaz threw a gun as he ran and it was picked up by an unknown person before officers could find it.

The attorney for Diaz’s family stressed that no gun was ever seen, and said he did not deserve to die.

Genevieve Huizar, Diaz’s mother, said she was disappointed by the decision but prepared to appeal.

“We’re going to keep fighting day by day,” she said.

Surrounded by supporters, including others who had lost loved ones to officer-involved shootings, she said the jury should have been made aware of a previous fatal shooting Bennallack had been involved in.

“Justice was not served today, not for my son and not for Orange County,” she said.

Anaheim City Attorney Michael Houston said information on the previous shooting, as well as the community’s response after Diaz’s death, was not relevant in the case. He added he was pleased the jury had taken more than one vote in its roughly two hours of deliberation.

“That gives me some console that there was a strong discussion in the jury room,” he said.

The ruling also backed up previous investigations into the shooting, he said.

“Our public safety officers put their own safety and lives on the line every day,” he said. “They do that for our community as a whole.”

Contact the writer: ckoerner@ocregister.com