CHP to settle lawsuit over Interstate 5 shooting of Sacramento man for $7 million

Six years after a California Highway Patrol officer shot a Sacramento man to death on a Northern California freeway overpass, the CHP has agreed to pay $7 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit over the incident.

The settlement over the June 4, 2016, shooting death of Daniel Shaham, which comes two months before the case was scheduled to go to trial in Sacramento, still must be finalized in court filings.

But the agreement allows the CHP to avoid a trial that was expected to focus on a graphic video of the shooting and the actions of then-CHP Officer Paul Shadwell, who shot Shaham four times and also was involved in two other “highly questionable shootings,” according to court documents.

“This was a really shocking, horrific shooting on video, and we hope that the settlement sends a message about the value of human life and the nationwide problem of unnecessary police shootings,” said Oakland attorney Michael Haddad, who filed the suit on behalf of Shaham’s mother, Sacramento physician Denise Smart.

The CHP declined to comment Wednesday, citing pending litigation. Shadwell could not be reached by phone or email.

A “notice of settlement” in the case was filed Wednesday in federal court in Sacramento and says the settlement followed a June 16 mediation session.

CHP shooting ruled ‘justifiable’ in 2017

The shooting on an I-5 overpass north of Weed was ruled in August 2017 to be a justifiable use of deadly force. The Siskiyou County District Attorney’s Office concluding that Shaham was holding a folding knife and Shadwell “was afraid that Shaham was going to try to kill him.”

“He discharged his firearm to stop that threat,” the D.A.’s report said.

But Haddad contended in court filings that Shaham did not threaten the officer or move toward Shadwell, who was standing 12 to 15 feet away near his patrol car when he began firing.

“Suddenly, and without warning, Officer Shadwell fired four consecutive shots at Mr. Shaham, hitting him twice in the chest, in the side of his right leg, and in his back,” Haddad wrote in a pretrial statement filed May 30. “Officer Shadwell kept on shooting even as he watched Mr. Shaham fall — he admits he lowered his aim to continue shooting at Mr. Shaham as he went down.

“That means that in the moment, Officer Shadwell correctly perceived that Mr. Shaham was turning away and falling to the ground, but he adjusted his aim downward and kept shooting anyway. Much later, Mr. Shaham was pronounced dead at the scene.”

‘One of the most notorious shooting videos I’ve seen’

Video from a camera in Shadwell’s patrol car, obtained by The Sacramento Bee in 2017 through a California Public Records Act request, shows the officer stringing yellow caution tape around the scene following the shooting, but does not show him approaching Shaham or providing medical assistance.

Other officers responding to the scene began performing CPR on Shaham 23 minutes after the shooting, according to the video.

“It’s shocking,” Haddad told The Bee at the time. “It’s one of the most notorious shooting videos I’ve seen.

“If you just believe your own eyes watching the video, anyone can see Daniel is no threat.”

At the time, Shaham was returning to Sacramento from a driving vacation and had stopped his Toyota sedan on the Louie Road overpass.

Shaham, who attended high school in Larkspur and majored in chemistry at Sacramento State, had been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, which can cause hallucinations, depression and delusions, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

The lawsuit says he was considered “moderate- to high-functioning” and enjoyed reading, cooking and going for drives in the country.

“He tended to be shy, submissive, and compliant with appropriate guidance or direction,” the suit says.

911 caller reported possible suicide attempt

The day of the shooting, a passerby who saw Shaham on the overpass thought he was behaving strangely and called 911 to report a man was climbing on the overpass railing, court filings say.

Shadwell, who was conducting a traffic stop on I-5, got the call, which reported that a man on the overpass appeared to be attempting suicide, court filings say.

“Officer Shadwell arrived at the scene, parked behind Mr. Shaham, and briefly spoke to Mr. Shaham,” court documents say, adding that Shaham told Shadwell he was “watching traffic.”

“Because Mr. Shaham had not broken any laws and did not appear to be in distress, Officer Shadwell returned to his patrol car to leave and Mr. Shaham returned to his car.”

Inside his patrol car, Shadwell began reviewing dispatch records and noted that Shaham had been reported as having been standing on the overpass rail and became concerned that Shaham “might be a danger to himself,” court documents say.

“Officer Shadwell reapproached Mr. Shaham at his closed front passenger-side window and saw him holding a pocket knife in his right hand while partially opening and closing the blade with his thumb,” court documents say. “Officer Shadwell told Mr. Shaham to put the knife away through the closed window, but did not know if Mr. Shaham heard him.”

Shadwell, who was deposed as the case progressed, testified that as he looked through the car window “Shaham looked at him ‘with a thousand-mile stare like he was looking right through me ... like somebody who might have mental problems,’” court documents say.

“Mr. Shaham opened the driver’s side door and stepped out of the vehicle,” court documents say. “Officer Shadwell pointed his gun at Mr. Shaham as he started to get out of his vehicle. Officer Shadwell told Mr. Shaham to drop the knife.

“Mr. Shaham failed to drop the knife, but instead made four slow-moving sideways steps from the driver’s side door of his car toward the back of his car. When Mr. Shaham got to the back of the car, Officer Shadwell then fired four consecutive shots at Mr. Shaham, hitting him twice in the chest, in the side of his right leg, and in his back.”

Haddad’s pretrial statement says that CHP training states “officers are only supposed to point their gun directly at a person if deadly force would be justified.”

“Officer Shadwell admitted that because Mr. Shaham did not pose an immediate threat of death or serious bodily injury to Officer Shadwell at that time, he was not justified to use deadly force,” Haddad’s statement says. “Officer Shadwell further agreed that Mr. Shaham was only a potential threat then, and that he would not be authorized to shoot someone who is only a potential threat.”

CHP lawyers say Shaham would not drop knife

Lawyers for the CHP described a different scenario, where Shadwell was left with little choice but to shoot.

“Officer Shadwell pointed the gun at Shaham, telling him to put the knife down multiple times,” court documents say. “Shaham did not stop as he was being ordered to do, rather he continued to advance toward the rear corner panel of the car, opening and closing the knife.”

Despite Shadwell’s continued commands, “Shaham continued to methodically advance toward Officer Shadwell, saying nothing,” court documents say. “Eventually there was no cover between Shaham and Officer Shadwell, who had his back to a steep, slippery embankment.

“Once Shaham cleared the back of the car, Officer Shadwell was left with nothing in between him and the uncooperative, knife-wielding man.”

Haddad’s pretrial statement says that after the shooting, as Shaham lay on the road bleeding with the closed pocket knife on the ground nearby, Shadwell said he was “too afraid” to check on Shaham and perform CPR until other officers arrived about 20 minutes later.

“After the shooting, Officer Shadwell described the incident to dispatch as a ‘combat shooting,’ confusing other officers who were on their way to help, and that Mr. Shaham ‘came at me with a knife,’ in clear contradiction to what actually occurred,” the court filing says.

“Officer Shadwell’s subjective fear may have been triggered by a recent traumatizing incident,” the court filing says. “About a year earlier, Officer Shadwell was involved in a horrific incident at his home that happened where he encountered his wife repeatedly stabbing their teenage son with a knife, and he had to stop her.

“Officer Shadwell also was involved in two highly questionable shootings, one prior to this incident where he fired shots at a suspect from the passenger seat of a patrol vehicle, and a shooting that occurred after the (Shaham) incident, in December of 2018, when Officer Shadwell shot a man during a traffic stop while the man was still seated in his car because Officer Shadwell believed the man made a furtive movement for a gun.”

Court documents say Shadwell went on “personal leave” in January 2019 and later applied for disability benefits. Online records indicate Shadwell has been collecting his CHP pension since 2020.

Lawyers for the CHP said in the pretrial statement that they intended to seek court orders to exclude any references at trial to “non-relevant or prejudicial personal or personnel information about Officer Shadwell.” They also wrote that they wanted to exclude information “concerning subsequent incidents involving (the) use of force with respect to Officer Shadwell.”

Settlement one of largest in recent CHP suits

The settlement is the latest by the CHP involving lawsuits in the Sacramento region, and one of the largest in recent memory.

Last May, the CHP agreed to pay $3.95 million to settle a lawsuit by a man who said an emotionally troubled officer in the Amador County office used his service handgun to shoot him because he had been seeing the officer’s estranged wife.

Trae deBeaubien was wounded in a 2018 shooting by Officer Brad Wheat, who then went on to shoot and kill his wife, Mary Wheat, then shoot himself to death.

DeBeaubien’s lawsuit, filed by Sacramento attorney Stewart Katz, accused the agency of ignoring threats by the officer to hunt deBeaubien down and kill him.

Insurance firms for two therapists who evaluated Wheat agreed to pay another $975,000 as part of the settlement.

In another settlement in 2021, the CHP agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle a lawsuit by former Officer Jay Brome, who contended he faced years of bullying and discrimination in the agency because he was gay.

Brome, once named officer of the year in the CHP’s Solano area office, retired after a 20-year career when he said abuse from his colleagues had him considering suicide.