SAN DIEGO — A former San Diego sheriff’s deputy who already pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter for the 2020 fatal shooting of an unarmed suspect has been indicted on two federal charges that could bring a life sentence, federal prosecutors said.
A federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment Friday, May 17, charging Aaron Russell with depriving Nicholas Bils of his right to be free from officers using excessive force and with discharging a firearm in a violent crime, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.
The May 1, 2020, confrontation with Bils, 36, began when he was playing with his dog at San Diego’s Old Town State Park. Rangers told him the park was closed because of COVID restrictions. Bils allegedly brandished a golf club at a ranger before running away and was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and resisting arrest.
Bils was taken in a State Parks patrol car to the downtown jail. As the car pulled into the jail’s sally port, he slipped out of his handcuffs, opened the car door and began to run.
Russell, a 23-year-old jail deputy with 18 months on the force, witnessed the escape attempt. The U.S. Justice Department’s announcement Friday said: “Without warning Bils or his fellow officers, Russell fired five shots at Bils, who was unarmed, as he ran away. … None of the other officers on scene fired a shot or drew a weapon.”
Bils was struck four times and was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Russell was initially charged with murder; he pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, and was sentenced to a year in jail and three years of probation. If convicted of the federal charges, he faces a maximum penalty of life in prison, the Justice Department said.
A wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Bils’ relatives was settled in 2022 with San Diego County agreeing to pay $8.1 million. The family said Bils suffered from mental illness and was “terrified” of police.
