The parents of a man fatally shot by San Diego police officers filed a wrongful death lawsuit this week against the city and the officers involved, with the lawsuit alleging the man was shot while he was surrendering.
The April 14, 2025, shooting of 37-year-old Enrique Cortez Jr. followed a police chase that began in San Ysidro and ended with Cortez shot while behind the wheel of a pickup truck that crashed into a Golden Hill home.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court claims Cortez had his arms extended out of the driver’s side window of the disabled truck just before he was shot “while he was obviously attempting to surrender and posed no threat to officers.”
In video footage released about a month after the shooting, the police department said officers first encountered Cortez after responding to a 911 caller who stated a man was firing a gun and pointing the weapon at people.
Responding officers spotted Cortez and ordered him to drop his gun, but Cortez got into a parked white Ford F-150 and drove off. During the ensuing chase, Cortez fired four shots into the air while driving along Cypress Street, then drove onto northbound Interstate 5, according to police.
After Cortez exited the freeway, the pursuit continued in a residential neighborhood and culminated with the truck crashing into a home on 26th Street. Officers then surrounded the vehicle with guns drawn.
Police alleged the truck’s engine was revving and its tires spinning, indicating Cortez was attempting to reverse the vehicle. SDPD Sgt. Richard Curtis opened fire multiple times onto the right side of the truck and officers then ordered Cortez to place his hands outside the truck’s window.
According to the lawsuit, Cortez complied by extending “his arms and hands out of the window in a surrender position to SDPD officers.”
Officer Bryan Shields opened fire on Cortez with a handgun, discharging a total of about 12 rounds. Cortez died at the scene.
Police said they later found a rifle and a handgun in the bullet-riddled truck.
The lawsuit — which names the city, Curtis, Shields and other unidentified officers as defendants — alleges Cortez did not point either of the firearms at the officers at any point during the pursuit or at the crash scene.
The lawsuit also claims Cortez’s truck was immobile due to the crash and could not have accelerated toward the officers.
“The officers did not have an objectively reasonable basis for concluding Mr. Cortez was attempting to drive in the direction of SDPD Officers,” the complaint states.
