The wife and five children of Keith Vinyard have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against San Bernardino County, the sheriff’s department, Sheriff Shannon Dicus and at least two unnamed deputies as a consequence of the unarmed 52-year-old’s execution on March 23.
On March 23 at roughly 9:50 p.m. in Hesperia, Vinyard was shot and killed after deputies, in apparent response to a domestic violence warrant for Vinyard’s arrest, engaged in a vehicle chase in which he attempted to escape and was, according to the department, driving recklessly. The pursuit ended within the vicinity of the 15400 block of Halinor Street, at which point Vinyard refused to comply with commands made by a deputy, according to the department. During that exchange, according to the department, Vinyard threatened to shoot the deputy. It was subsequently determined that Vinyard was not in possession of a gun. Vinyard did, however, according to the department, arm himself with a “large metal object” as other deputies arrived on scene.
As that was taking place, according to one of the deputies, a second deputy and a third deputy opened fire on Vinyard after a first deputy discharged his service gun, even though one of those deputies did not consider Vinyard at that moment represented a threat, but considered it necessary for the deputies on the scene to act in unison because the threshold of a use of deadly force was occurring.
As of April 4, the California Attorney General’s Office had initiated a review of Vinyard’s shooting under California Government Code Section 12525.3, which requires that the California Department of Justice serve as an independent agency to investigate statewide police officer shootings resulting in the death of an unarmed civilian.
While the sheriff’s department maintains that Vinyard was in possession of a deadly weapon – the large metal object it was claimed Vinyard was holding – witnesses at the scene as well as at least one of the deputies did not have anything in his hands and was yet inside his car when he was felled in a hail of gunfire.
Gage’s lawsuit on behalf of Tiffany Shernaman-Vinyard and the couple’s four sons and one daughter maintains Vinyard had not in any way threatened the physical safety of the officers at the scene.