The 32-year-old Navy veteran was carrying a metal bar. The LAPD thought it was a machete. They shot Jesse Murillo to death.
Now the Canoga Park man's mother will collect $24.45 million from the city of Los Angeles.
The settlement — approved by the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday — marks the latest chapter in a shooting that the district attorney's office determined in 2020 was lawful. The Police Commission also determined that the use of deadly force was within LAPD policy.
But in August, a federal jury unanimously awarded Tammy Morello $23.8 million, finding that officers Fred Sigman and Christopher Montague used excessive and unreasonable force in shooting her son. That award was one of the largest given to the LAPD in the department's history.
The fatal accident occurred two days before Christmas 2017.
Police went to Murillo's Canoga Park home around 7:15 p.m. after a 911 call due to a domestic disturbance — Murillo was said to be involved in a physical altercation with his sister and put her fiancé in a headlock.
The officer who was first to arrive at the scene reported: “Officer needs assistance. Man armed with a machete.”
Murillo is believed to have been wearing a gas mask and carrying a machete and hammer. Later evidence would show that he was not carrying any of the items but had a 16.5 inch pull-up bar in his hand.
Sigman and Montag arrived to support the first officer, and the fatal shooting occurred. The two confirmed that they shot Murillo because they thought he was running toward them while holding a hammer in his right hand and what they thought was a machete in his left hand, causing them to fear for their lives, according to their review. District Attorney's Office.
At the scene on Strathairn Street, west of DeSoto Street, police found a hammer in Morello's pocket and a tow bar next to his body.
According to the attorney who filed the case, Murillo tried to run away when he saw Sigman and Montagu's police cruiser in the street at the end of the alley. As he ran, he made a sharp left turn and ran east on the sidewalk, the attorney said.
Attorneys for Morello's family told jurors that Sigman and Montague fired seven shots at Morello from the street without giving him adequate warning or time to comply. Four of those shots hit Murillo. They presented evidence at trial that showed the trajectory of the shots indicated that Murillo was not running directly toward the officers but rather away from them when he was struck.
At least one of the shots was fired as Murillo was falling to the ground, attorney Dale Galipo said, and showed jurors a video of the incident and an analysis of the bullets' path. Some of the stray shots fired by officers hit a nearby garage, a truck and a fence.
According to the prosecutor's account of the fatal encounter, Murillo was about 50 feet from Sigman when he lunged at him while holding a pull-up bar above his head. Sigman said he shouted, “Hey, stop!” He fired the first shot when Murillo got within about 22 feet.
Sigman fired five shots from his 9mm pistol, and Montagu fired two shots from his .45-caliber handgun. As they fired, Morello “ran eastward along the sidewalk adjacent to their police cruiser before collapsing to the ground,” the district attorney's office stated.
In concluding that the officers acted lawfully in the shooting, a deputy district attorney found in 2018 that Murillo ran toward Sigman but then swerved — a slight change of direction in a rapidly developing incident that still justified the shooting as self-defense, because he like that. It is reasonable to believe that Murillo had a machete given the other officer's radio call and because the pull bar would have caused serious injury.
The Los Angeles Police Commission found in 2018 that lethal use of force was within department policy, although commissioners questioned the officers' tactics and found the incident warranted a “tactical debrief.”
After being shot on December 23, 2017, Murillo was conscious and talking, but later died of his injuries in hospital.
In determining their verdict in August, jurors agreed with Galipeau and co-counsel Maro Burunsouzian's argument that the use of deadly force was not necessary because the situation did not immediately threaten the lives of the officers or anyone else.
The jury awarded $6.5 million in damages for antemortem pain and suffering, $5.3 million in damages for loss of life, and $12 million in damages for the wrongful death of Tammy Murillo.
The settlement comes as a growing number of cases move through the courts related to allegations of misconduct by the Los Angeles Police Department. According to a tracking of payments conducted by City Comptroller Kenneth Mejia, from fiscal year 2020 to 2023, the city covered more than $125 million in claims against the LAPD.
