Family of Carlos Mejia, fatally shot by Salinas police, files federal lawsuit against the city.

On May 20, the day Carlos Mejia was shot and killed by Salinas police officers, there as already a protest against police planned for City Hall.

Community members were showing up to protest another fatal officer-involved shooting that left Osman Hernandez dead in the Mi Pueblo parking lot on May 9. 

As they gathered outside City Hall, protestors started passing around phones to show the cellphone video footage that captured Mejia's deadly encounter with the police. They'd been called after he allegedly broke into a home, exposed himself to a woman, and tried to strangle her dog. Two officers followed Mejia for a minute or so, guns drawn, as he removed a pair of garden shears from his backpack. Both fired, and Mejia fell dead on the corner of Del Monte Avenue and Sanborn Road.

The video went viral, along with a national conversation about police use of force policy. In a federal lawsuit filed Dec. 23 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Mejia's family members claim SPD has systematically allowed for excessive use of force and failed to discipline officers. 

The plaintiffs are Mejia's brother, Jose Roberto Mejia-Gomez, his father Elias Mejia-Baires, and Mejia's one child, an 8-year-old daughter. She is not named in the lawsuit, but is represented by community activist and past mayoral candidate Margaret Serna Bonetti. 

The lawsuit named the city of Salinas and police officers Danny Warner and Josh Lynd, whose names were publicly released by city officials in September. 

"[Mejia] complied with the officers’ commands," according to the lawsuit, filed by acclaimed civil rights attorney John Burris. 

In an unusual move, Salinas Police Chief Kelly McMillin presented on some basic facts of the case days after the shooting, in the face of public scrutiny and unrest. An investigation by SPD is still ongoing. 

Burris goes on to claim the lawsuit is about something more than Mejia's death, but four fatal officer-involved shootings in Salinas this year, all killing Latino men.

The suit claims SPD engages in racial profiling and has "an official policy, entrenched culture and posture of deliberate indifference toward protecting citizen’s rights."

Salinas City Attorney Chris Callihan declined to comment, as the city had not yet been served with the lawsuit.