North Las Vegas could settle deadly police shooting for nearly $400K

The North Las Vegas City Council is scheduled to vote Wednesday on settling a lawsuit filed by the family of a man who was fatally shot by police on New Year’s Day in 2011.

Under the settlement proposal, the city would pay nearly $400,000 to Fernando Sauceda’s family.

“I feel horrible that it took this long for justice to be given to our clients, and unfortunately it’s not much justice, but it’s something,” said attorney Robert Murdock, who represents Sauceda’s family with Marty Keach.

Sauceda was in his front yard near Carey Avenue and Fifth Street when he and others fired their guns in the air to celebrate the new year, according to a Las Vegas Review-Journal report at the time. Police patrolling the area went to the home and saw several people outside with guns.

North Las Vegas police have said the officers ordered the group to drop their weapons. All but one complied with the order, the department said. Police said Sauceda pointed a gun at officer Jeffrey Pollard, who tried to disarm him. And during an altercation, Pollard fired several rounds, killing Sauceda, according to reports.

Pollard did not face criminal charges in the shooting.

Sauceda’s family filed a civil rights lawsuit in U.S. District Court in December 2011, arguing that police “crept up on him and without any provocation by Fernando, admonishment or orders to stop, simply shot and killed Fernando.”

Murdock said except for two officers, no one testified that the officers announced themselves as police.

“They were in fatigues, it was dark and nobody knew it was the police,” Murdock said. Sauceda, he said, was only protecting his family.

According to the North Las Vegas agenda item, officials recommend the settlement “in order to eliminate any potential risk of an adverse verdict” and to save money on continuing a legal defense.

In a statement, City Attorney Micaela Moore said the case was recently sent to a federal appeals court mediator after numerous appeals. She said the recommendation to settle is based on multiple factors, including the likelihood of more appeals and the case potentially being years away from going to trial.

“The city attorney’s office, while confident in the facts of the case, believes the mediator’s settlement proposal is reasonable to bring resolution to this heavily-litigated, eight-year-old case,” Moore said.

Contact Blake Apgar at bapgar@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5298. Follow @blakeapgar on Twitter.