Family of Man Tased by East Bay Park Police and Left Comatose Files Federal Lawsuit

The family of a man who was tased by an East Bay Regional Parks District police officer earlier this year and still remains comatose is suing the park district, Alameda County, and the two officers involved in the incident.

The federal civil rights lawsuit was filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, roughly six months after EBRPD officer Jonathan Knea tased Deontae Faison, a 35-year-old Black man from San Francisco, while he was wading into the estuary at Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline in Oakland. Faison was unarmed during the incident on April 5, according to his attorneys.

Faison, a father of two boys, has been in a coma and on life support in a local hospital since the incident.

“They tased him in the back multiple times — while in water — which is against all police policy,” Jamir Davis, the attorney representing Faison’s family, said at a Tuesday press conference. “After that, they stood on the bank of the estuary for over 30 minutes and watched him struggle for his life.”

The suit alleges that the officers deprived Faison of his constitutional rights by using unreasonable and excessive force. It also alleges that the officers violated several state laws, including one protecting citizens from threats, intimidation or coercion.

Faison, the complaint states, was “physically, mentally and emotionally injured as a direct and proximate result of the brutal attack on his person.”

EBRPD told KQED that, while it does not comment on pending litigation, “our hearts go out to Mr. Faison and his family.”

The body cam footage of the incident also shows officers Knea and Roberto Filice approaching the van that Faison was in, which the officers checked on because of expired tags.

Knea instructed Faison and his female companion to sit on the bumper of the van. When asked, Faison said he was not the owner of the van and gave the officers an alias.

The complaint from Faison’s family emphasizes that the woman, whose identity remains undisclosed, was not questioned or addressed by the officers during the initial interaction — alleging that “Knea treated Deontae’s friend much differently because she was white.”

When the officers continued questioning Faison after failing to identify him in their database, Faison fled the scene, according to the body cam footage.

As Knea withdraws his gun, Faison begins wading into the estuary, prompting Knea to repeatedly deploy a Taser into his back, causing Faison to flail in the water for roughly 30 minutes until losing consciousness.

In the body cam footage, Knea said, “He is not going to make it,” as the two officers watched Faison struggle to breathe or move in the water. They eventually pull him onto the shore, watching him for about 15 minutes as he briefly regains consciousness and struggles to breathe.

“They go through life-saving CPR training in order to respond appropriately in a situation like this,” Adante Pointer, a civil rights attorney working with the firm representing Faison, told reporters at the briefing. “As opposed to being the heroes that we like to believe they are, they stood there, hands in their pockets.”

The complaint alleges that Knea and Filice left before paramedics arrived at the scene, failing to inform them that Faison had been tased while in the water or to provide them with any other crucial information about his injuries. It also claims that officers filed a report two days after the incident, one that made no mention of Knea deploying his Taser on Faison. It said they believed Faison was armed with a gun and recommended charges be filed against him.

In the incident report, “No” is checked in response to the question of whether there was any use of force on the officers’ part.

The complaint includes graphic photos from the body cam footage and disturbing pictures of Faison’s Taser wounds.

The officers also reportedly allowed Faison’s friend to leave the scene with just a citation and did not request a witness statement from her, the complaint alleges.

The plaintiff’s complaint in the lawsuit contains a slew of allegations against the officers, including that they disposed of Faison’s clothes and concealed evidence, failed to report their actions and deleted portions of the body cam footage.

“He is now unable to speak. He has a hole in every part of his body just to be alive and be able to breathe,” said Shaunie Faison, Deontae Faison’s sister. “At this point, we still don’t know if my brother is going to live or not.”

Pointer, one of the plaintiff’s attorneys, reminded reporters of the relatively trivial issue that sparked the incident in the first place.

“Keep in mind, this is all supposedly from some expired car registration,” he said. “You get a death sentence for driving around with car registration that’s expired. Was it that serious to chase — to hunt — a man down?”