Mother Of Mentally Ill Man Killed By Huntington Beach Police Sues For $20M
HUNTINGTON BEACH (CBSLA.com) — The mother of man shot and killed by Huntington Beach police earlier this year has filed a $20 million civil-rights lawsuit against the city.
Steven Schiltz was killed by Huntington Beach officers at a sports complex last March, surrounded by children and families, after authorities received multiple calls of a man armed with a bat and a broken bottle. However, the 29-year-old's mother Angela Hernandez says he was not a violent person.
"I mean, he was all talk," she told CBS2 News. "He was never physically violent, never." She says he did have mental issues and had spent some time in a psychiatric ward.
She filed a restraining order against her son in 2015, when he'd fight with her other son. During a court hearing, she told a judge that "Steven will threaten his family members with knives, baseball bats, pool sticks, pool ball, chairs and basically anything he can get his hands on." However, she says he would never strike anyone.
The lawsuit claims Schiltz was attacked by unknown persons and was actually looking for help at the moment he was shot and killed. It also charges that the officers failed to give him proper medical attention and that they used excessive force.
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