A federal judge will allow a Mission man who was shot by police in 2017 to amend his lawsuit to name the actual officer who shot him.
Steven Wilson, 52, sued the city of Mission and officer Teodoro Rodriguez Jr. in 2018 alleging excessive force after he was shot in the stomach on Jan. 9, 2017, at his parents’ home in Mission.
The lawsuit named Rodriguez as the officer who fired the shot, but in a December 2019 filing Wilson’s attorneys said the actual officer who shot Wilson was Jaime Solis, who admitted as much during a deposition.
Rodriguez was Solis’ supervisor and served a suspension after providing Solis with an orange shotgun that was supposed to be loaded with a non-lethal bean bag round, court documents indicate.
That weapon, however, was loaded with a breaching round that is used to gain entry through locked doors.
Solis admits in the deposition that he was not trained in the use of less-lethal shotgun, but said he believed the shooting was justified because Wilson threatened his parents, law enforcement and made fumbling movements under a blanket right before the shooting.
The officer said in the deposition that he and other officers on scene believed Wilson was armed.
Solis was later reprimanded for not telling Rodriguez that he wasn’t trained, according to the deposition.
Police responded to the house after receiving complaints that Wilson was running naked through the streets and masturbating in public.
His attorneys say Wilson suffers from schizophrenia and had a mental health episode that night.
Mission police charged Wilson with public lewdness and terroristic threat of family household, both Class A misdemeanors.
Wilson pleaded guilty and was sentenced to the 52 days he spent in jail after recovering from being shot.
The city of Mission had been opposed to allowing the man to amend his lawsuit to include Solis because of the statute of limitations, but U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez ruled last week that Wilson had a right to amend the lawsuit to fix the misidentification of the parties.
A trial date has not been set.
