BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — The Kern County Sheriff’s Department ruled the shooting justified four years ago, but on Wednesday a federal jury in Fresno rendered a very different sort of verdict – Kern County was liable, to the tune of $30.5 million.
39-year-old Mickel Erich Lewis Sr., his girlfriend and her two teenage daughters were driving home with ice cream sundaes from the Mojave Wienerschnitzel on Oct. 3, 2020, when a Kern County Sheriff’s deputy pulled them over for a vehicle code infraction.
What happened next has been examined, debated and rehashed, but what is indisputable is this: Lewis was shot five times, including twice in the back…