A California cop who shot and killed a fleeing man claimed the man had tossed a gun over a fence before hopping over it, prompting the cop to fire several rounds through the fence.
But attorneys for Robert Brown, a 28-year-old biracial father of a 6-year-old boy, accused San Bernardino police of planting the gun because it was not found until 30 minutes after he had been shot.
It’s difficult to tell from the police body camera if Brown did indeed toss a gun over the fence but even if he did there is no evidence on the video that he ever pointed a gun at the officer, Jackson Tubbs, a motorcycle cop who attempted to pull Brown over for a vehicle code violation on December 27, 2023.
Earlier this month, Brown’s family agreed to a $4.9 million settlement for a lawsuit filed in December 2024. Most of the money will go into a bank account when his son turns 18. It was an unusually quick settlement, considering most of these lawsuits can drag on for years before a settlement is agreed upon.
“Robert hopped a fence,” stated a press release sent to the media by Brad Gage Law, the Southern California law firm representing Brown’s family.
“Both of his hands were visible, and he had no weapon. When Robert landed in a backyard with children’s toys present, Officer Tubbs allegedly shot him. It took quite a while before Robert died. He suffered a painful, gruesome and horrible death.”
The federal lawsuit obtained by Atlanta Black Star states that “decedent used both hands to hop a fence. At no time did the decedent show or point a weapon towards TUBBS or anyone else.”
“Nevertheless, TUBBS shot the decedent multiple times through a fence around the backyard of 1232 Crestview Avenue,” the claim states.
Watch the video below.
Vehicle Code Violation
Body camera video shows Tubbs was riding a motorcycle when he attempted to pull Brown over for an unspecified vehicle code violation, but Brown refused to pull over. Police said Brown had a warrant for his arrest, which is likely why he fled.
The video shows Tubbs pursuing Brown through several blocks before Brown stopped his vehicle in front of a house, then ran into the backyard. Tubbs stopped his bike and started pursuing him on foot.
At one point, as he was running into a residential backyard, Brown appeared to drop an object before stooping down to pick it up. Police say it was a gun.
Brown continued running and placed both hands on the fence before scaling it, which was actually a combination of two different fences next to each other, including a wooden fence and a chain-link fence.
Tubb ran up to the fence and fired five shots through a gap in the wooden fence before scaling the fence himself.
“Get on the ground!” Tubbs yelled at Brown, who was standing near a shed with his hands up, before he fell into the shed and to the ground.
Brown was sitting on the ground with both his arms extended to his side, showing his hands to be empty, as the cop ordered him to lie facedown on the ground.
“Get on your stomach right now!” Tubbs yelled as more San Bernardino cops started scaling the fence from the other side.
Several cops then pounced on Brown, piling on top of him with one cop yelling at him to “get your hands behind your back!”
Once he is handcuffed, the cops repeatedly tell Brown to “relax” as he struggles to position himself to breathe better, as blood is coming out of his mouth.
“Hey, hey, hey, relax,” a cop told him as he struggled to breathe.
“F_ck you,” Brown responded.
He was pronounced dead later that day at a local hospital.
The lawsuit filed by Brown’s sister, Victoria Brown, accused the cops of unreasonable seizure, battery and negligence.
It also accuses San Bernardino Police Chief Darren L. Goodman of promoting “policies wherein police officers were ordered and encouraged to stop, detain, arrest, forcefully seize, and/or prosecute members of our community.”
According to the claim, the cops falsified evidence and submitted false police reports:
Chief Goodman ratified the unconstitutional actions of subordinates by continually rewarding officers for unconstitutional conduct through awards, positive evaluations, better assignments, promotions, and increased income/overtime.
Thus, the policy, practice and custom of defendants resulted in violating the rights of people to be free from violating equal protection, unreasonable seizures, unlawful arrests, and excessive force.
Thereafter in violation of Plaintiffs’ due process rights Defendants proceeded to falsify evidence and submit false police reports as well as to delay medical treatment so that the decedent would die.
Although police said Brown had a warrant for his arrest when they tried to pull him over, he was driving a car registered to his father, who does not have a criminal record, so that information would not have been available to Tubbs when he tried to pull him over for the code violation.
“He didn’t deserve to die like that,” Brown’s father, Willie Brown, told ABC 7 last year. “He didn’t deserve to die. He ran, so what? To shoot him in his back?”
A similar incident took place in 2022 when San Bernardino police shot a 23-year-old Black man named Robert Adams in the back, resulting in a $4 million settlement last year.
