The family of an unarmed man shot to death by a Pima County sheriff’s deputy who mistook the man’s key fob for a gun is contemplating a $35 million lawsuit against the county, public records show.
A lawyer representing the family has served a notice of claim, a precursor to a lawsuit, against Sheriff Chris Nanos and other county officials that alleges authorities used excessive force in pursuing Bradley “Alex” Lewis, who died two weeks after his 19th birthday in a Jan. 20 confrontation north of Tucson. A notice of claim is a precursor to a lawsuit.
“Alex had yet to live any of the most exciting and enjoyable years of adulthood. His family has been robbed of all the years, milestones and memories enjoyed by most families,” said the notice from attorney Eduardo Coronado.
The shooter, Deputy Gilbert Caudillo, a 20-year veteran of law enforcement, was cleared of criminal wrongdoing by the Pima County Attorney’s Office. But a consultant hired by the Lewis family claims the shooting could not have unfolded the way Caudillo described it to investigators.
According to the sheriff’s account of the event, Lewis was pulled over by deputies responding to a report of a man trying to break into vehicles early in the morning. Based on a description of the man’s vehicle, the sheriff said deputies identified Lewis as the suspect and determined he was wanted in another case on suspicion of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The Sheriff Department maintains Lewis rammed a patrol vehicle — no deputies were injured in the encounter — then “charged” at a deputy. Caudillo, in a statement to detectives five days after the incident, said Lewis got out of his vehicle and was “flying” toward Caudillo when the deputy fired.
The Sheriff’s Department does not yet have body-worn cameras for its deputies, so video footage of the incident is not available.
The consultant hired by the Lewis family, who reviewed deputy statements and autopsy reports, said the fatal shot struck Lewis on the side of his body as he was squeezing himself between two vehicles less than a foot apart, which prevented him from moving quickly.
An autopsy report from the Pima County medical examiner said the bullet that killed Lewis pierced his right shoulder, then penetrated his right lung.
Deadly force “was inappropriate and excessive under the circumstances,” said the consultant, William M. Harmening, a former sheriff’s deputy and securities fraud official in Illinois who also taught forensic psychology as an adjunct faculty member at Washington University in St. Louis.
Harmening has testified in numerous lawsuits against law enforcement but in recent years some judges have blocked his testimony, ruling that he lacks real-world experience in police use-of-force situations.
In a 2019 federal court ruling in a wrongful-death lawsuit against a New Mexico sheriff’s deputy, a judge who barred his testimony noted Harmening has been involved only in one homicide investigation in the early 1990s, has never investigated an officer-involved shooting, has only taken a single course in investigative methods and is not trained in crime scene analysis.
Harmening could not be reached for comment. He did not reply by deadline to request for comment made through Coronado, the Lewis family attorney.
A sheriff’s official said the department does not comment on legal matters.
