SANTA ROSA, Calif. -- The family of the Sonoma County teenager shot to death last month by a sheriff's deputy who mistook the boy's replica gun for an assault rifle sued the county Monday.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, claims that Deputy Erick Gelhaus should have recognized that Andy Lopez Cruz's replica AK-47 was a toy.
"What the hell were you thinking? This was a 13-year-old boy," the family's attorney, Arnoldo Casillas, said at a press conference in San Francisco.
Andy's parents, Rodrigo Lopez and Sujay Cruz, spoke briefly to reporters, saying they want the Sonoma County sheriff's office held accountable for their son's death.
The suit names Gelhaus and the county as defendants. It seeks unspecified damages.
Casillas accused the county of trying to cover up the facts of what happened Oct. 22.
He said Gelhaus was too quick to fire at Andy that afternoon, unloading eight rounds at the boy within two or three seconds of ordering him to drop his gun. County authorities have said there was a 10-second lag.
Casillas said Gelhaus had made inappropriate assumptions because he was patrolling a largely Latino neighborhood outside Santa Rosa.
"He assumed that a Mexican American kid with a gun is a gang member," Casillas said.
Gelhaus, a 24-year veteran of the sheriff's office, has said through his attorney that he thought the replica rifle was real and fired on the boy because he believed his life and that of his partner were threatened.
The deputies came across Andy shortly after 3 p.m. as he walked by a vacant lot near his home. According to the sheriff's office, the deputies saw Andy's replica gun and ordered him to drop it. When the boy turned toward the deputies while still holding the toy gun, Gelhaus fired.
Gelhaus realized that Andy's gun was an air gun that shot plastic pellets only after the boy had been mortally wounded, the sheriff's office said.
Gelhaus is on paid leave while the shooting is investigated by Santa Rosa and Petaluma police and the Sonoma County district attorney.
The FBI has opened an independent inquiry to determine whether Andy's civil rights were violated.
Casillas is well-known civil rights attorney. His Southern California firm won a $24 million lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department last year involving a 13-year-old carrying a pellet gun who was shot by a police officer.
The boy, Rohayent Gomez, was paralyzed in the shooting.
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McClatchy-Tribune News Service
