The city of San Diego will pay $325,000 to settle a lawsuit filed on behalf of a mentally ill woman who was shot by an officer and bitten by a police dog in her studio apartment in East Village in 2020.
Rosa Calva’s lawsuit accused the San Diego Police Department of failing to de-escalate the encounter and using excessive force. The payout, which the City Council approved Tuesday, will settle the case in federal court.
“This case is the perfect example of the dangers of putting police officers on the frontlines of our nation’s mental health crisis,” Calva’s attorney, Brody McBride, said in a statement.
Police spokesperson Lt. Adam Sharki said the department does not comment on litigation.
The incident started shortly before 10 p.m. May 23, 2020, when Calva, then 26, began throwing items out a window and onto the street below her fourth-floor apartment on Market Street near Park Boulevard.
Her mother and her attorney have said Calva was in the throes of a mental health crisis.
Witnesses called 911. One caller said he was struck by glass, although he told a dispatcher he did not need medical attention, according to audio of the call.
According to body-worn camera video, police records and the lawsuit, officers obtained a key from the apartment manager and opened Calva’s door. Officers found her holed up in her bathroom.
According to the lawsuit, police did not call for a Psychiatric Emergency Response Team or crisis negotiators.
Officers ordered Calva to walk out and surrender, and they threatened to release a police dog, but Calva remained in the bathroom. Officers used a tool known as a Halligan bar to bust open a hole in the bathroom door, then fired pepperballs inside.
Officers tried to send the police dog through the hole and kicked open the bathroom door, according to the body-worn camera video.
Calva was armed with a steak knife, and an officer struggled to restrain her. That’s when another officer, Andres Ruiz, shot her multiple times in the chest and abdomen at close range, and a police dog clamped down on her arm, according to the video.
McBride said officers did the “exact opposite” of de-escalation.
“In doing so, they created a situation where their use of deadly force was all but certain,” he said. “Thankfully, Ms. Calva survived the shooting. But she’s going to be dealing with the physical and mental trauma it caused her for the rest of her life.”
For two years, the department withheld the video despite a state law that requires agencies to release footage of shootings by officers within 45 days, with a few exceptions, in an effort to increase transparency. The department cited an exemption in the law that allows video to be withheld if disclosing it would interfere with the “successful completion” of an investigation.
The department released the footage in May 2022, three weeks after the First Amendment Coalition, which advocates for open government, threatened to sue.
The District Attorney’s Office found the shooting was justified, meaning Ruiz did not face criminal charges. The Police Department determined the officer followed policy.
Calva was charged in San Diego Superior Court with assault on a police officer. However, a judge later ruled she was incompetent to stand trial, meaning she was unable to understand the proceedings and assist in her own defense.
Her competency was eventually restored, and she was placed in a mental health diversion program, but she did not successfully complete the program, so criminal proceedings resumed. On Tuesday. her attorney raised concerns about her competency, and the proceedings were suspended again. A doctor is expected to evaluate her in January, Deputy District Attorney Mary Naoom said.
