Family of second man killed by Bay Area deputy to get $4.5 million in settlement

Contra Costa County has agreed to pay $4.5 million to the family of a mentally impaired homeless man who was killed during a confrontation in 2021 with a sheriff’s deputy who was recently convicted in another deadly shooting that took place three years earlier.

Former sheriff’s Deputy Andrew Hall fatally shot Tyrell Wilson, 33, in Danville on March 11, 2021, after Danville refused an order to drop a knife he was carrying, authorities said. The settlement was reached last fall but only made public this week in a report by Bay Area News Group.

Police body camera footage and bystander video of the incident shows Hall calling out to Wilson and walking toward him when Wilson suddenly turns and says, “Touch me and see what’s up.” Hall asks Wilson to drop the knife three times.

Wilson motions toward Hall’s face and says, “kill me,” according to the video footage. Hall fires a single shot and Wilson drops to the ground.

Earlier this month, Hall was sentenced to six years in prison after being convicted of assault with a firearm in the fatal shooting of motorist Laudemer Arboleda, 33, during a slow-speed car chase in November 2018, authorities said. At one point, Hall stood in front of the vehicle and fired 10 shots through the windshield and passenger-side window of Arboleda’s car.

Hall told investigators he was afraid Arboleda would run him down. Hall was the first law enforcement officer ever charged in an on-duty shooting in Contra Costa County, coming in the wake of the 2020 killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers.

In that case, the county agreed to pay out $4.9 million to Arboleda’s family,

Attorney John Burris, who represented Wilson’s family in the later shooting, said, “Tyrell Wilson would be alive today if the sheriff had suspended and or fired officer Hall instead of exonerating him after the officer’s cold-blooded shooting of Laudemer Arboleda.”

In the Arbodela case, Burris said, “a jury found that Hall violated his training and the department’s general orders by firing into a slow-moving car. However, the sheriff consistently condoned the officer’s conduct by making excuses for him.”

But Contra Costa Sheriff David Livingston said the video in the Wilson case shows Livingston threatened Hall and advanced toward the officer, and Hall made a split-second decision in defense of his life.

Contra Costa County Dist. Atty. Diana Becton filed a manslaughter case against Hall in the 2018 shooting of Arboleda on April 21, 2021, six weeks after Wilson was killed. Critics questioned how it took prosecutors more than two years to review the Arbodela shooting.