SAN JOSE — A federal jury Monday awarded $11.3 million to a man shot in the back and rendered a paraplegic by a city police officer.
A jury found last week that San Jose police officer Dondi West erred when she shot Hung Lam during a confrontation. Lam acted erratically and wielded a knife during a January 2014 standoff on Cape Horn Drive.
A next door neighbor, a retired San Mateo County sheriff, witnessed the shooting and testified that Lam did not pose a serious threat to police. After a three week trial, the jury found Lam bore some responsibility for the shooting, but decided that most of the blame lay with the officer.
Attorney John Burris said in a statement that the shooting was unjustified and “sentenced Hung Lam to a lifetime in a wheelchair, as a paraplegic.”
Burris and an attorney for the city of San Jose could not immediately be reached for comment.
Contact Louis Hansen (408) 920-5043. Follow him at Twitter.com/HansenLouis.