Former sheriff’s deputy who shot fleeing man in back indicted by San Diego federal grand jury

A former sheriff’s deputy who shot and killed a man who was running from authorities outside the downtown jail four years ago was indicted on two counts by a San Diego federal grand jury on Friday.

Aaron Russell is being charged with depriving Nicholas Bils of his right to be free from officers using excessive force and with discharging a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, the indictment reads.

At his initial court appearance on Friday, Russell pleaded not guilty. He will be allowed to remain out of custody on certain conditions, including surrendering his passport and restrictions on his travel.

If convicted, Russell could be sent to prison for life.

In a statement Friday, Bils’ mother, Kathleen Bils, thanked the federal government for furthering the investigation into her son’s death and bringing the prosecution forward “as a violation of my son’s constitutional right to life.”

“My family, his brothers and I continue to deeply mourn the loss of our Nicholas,” she said. “While I bear no personal ill will toward Aaron Russell and have forgiven him for taking my son’s life, I recognize the need for full and transparent justice to be done.”

The shooting happened on May 1, 2020, after a state park ranger arrested Bils in San Diego’s Old Town and drove him to the downtown jail. When they reached the facility, Bils — who was unarmed — slipped out of the back seat and sprinted north on Front Street.

Russell, who was walking on his way to work at the jail, saw Bils escape from the car.

This May 2020 image taken from video shows then-sheriff’s Deputy Aaron Russell, center, pointing his gun at Nicholas Bils outside San Diego County Jail in downtown San Diego.

(Associated Press)

According to the indictment, Russell — without issuing Bils a warning to stop — fired two shots at the man. The deputy paused briefly and fired three more shots. Russell struck Bils four times, and at least one bullet hit Bils in the back.

The indictment said Russell did not issue any warnings to the other three law enforcement officers in the area — none of whom fired a shot or drew a weapon.

Russell resigned within days of the fatal shooting and was later charged under state law with murder, marking the first time San Diego County prosecutors had charged a law enforcement officer with murder in the shooting death of a suspect. That decision came months after a 2020 California law raised the standard for when police can use deadly force from “reasonable” to “necessary.”

In January 2022, he pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and, the following month, got three years probation and was ordered to spend a year in jail. The prosecution had sought a six-year prison term.

With Russell’s plea to the lesser charge, San Diego Superior Court Judge Francis Devaney had the option of placing the former deputy on probation, with or without time in local custody, or sentencing him to prison. The judge ordered a three-year suspended sentence as a condition of probation, meaning that if Russell were to violate any of the terms, he could be sent to prison.

Devaney said at the time that he opted for the suspended sentence because Russell — 23 at the time of the shooting — “was so young, untrained, inexperienced, no criminal background, and no malicious intent in what you did.”

He said he thought Russell, who had been a deputy for 18 months, “made a horrible miscalculation.”

As the hearing ended, but with the judge still on the bench, Bils’ cousin Amber Barnett said one word loudly: “Shame.”

“The judge made a shameful decision,” she said later in the hallway outside the courtroom. “It sends a message to law enforcement that you can shoot someone in the back and maybe — maybe — get jail for a year.”

Bils’ mother, Kathleen Bils, sued Russell and the county in federal court, alleging excessive force and wrongful death.

It also accused then Sheriff Bill Gore and others of failing to properly train custodial deputies about the appropriate use of force and alleged a “systemic failure” in the county to investigate deaths involving use of force by deputies.

The county agreed to pay $8.1 million to settle the case in the summer of 2022, with Kathleen Bils receiving $5.1 million and Bils’ three brothers receiving $1 million each.

Both the civil case and the more recent indictment hinge on the Fourth Amendment, which provides anyone in the Unites States the constitutional right to be free from excessive force by law enforcement officials. Over the last few years, local officers with U.S. Customs and Border Protection have faced similar charges in non-fatal use-of-force cases, as have officers elsewhere involved in the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

City News Service contributed to this report.