Family of comatose man reaches last-minute settlement in Bay Area Taser case

The family of Deontae Charles Faison claims East Bay Regional Park District police officer Jonathan Knea used excessive force when he hit Faison with a Taser five times after running from a traffic stop.SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — The family of a man who was shocked with a Taser while in the San Leandro Bay in 2024, resulting in his coma, settled a lawsuit with the officer who fired the weapon and his employer minutes before jury selection was set to begin Tuesday.Lawyers representing the family of Deontae Charles Faison and East Bay Regional Park District police officer Jonathan Knea confirmed a deal had been reached, though both parties declined to give any specifics.Faison’s family sued Knea and the parks district on behalf of Faison in August 2024, accusing Knea of using excessive force when he repeatedly shocked Faison with a Taser as he ran from a traffic stop for expired tags.According to Faison’s family, Faison, a Black man, set out for a day at Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline Park with a friend on April 5, 2024, when he was approached by Knea, who activated his vehicle’s lights and instructed them to sit on the car’s bumper.The family says Knea said the car next to Faison had expired tags and that it belonged to him, despite never seeing Faison drive it.When asked his name, Faison provided Knea with an alias. After running his name through the district system without any matches, Knea called for backup.After 20 minutes, Faison attempted to leave the area, and Knea drew a gun on him. Faison ran toward the bay, and Knea deployed his Taser, first hitting Faison in the back a few feet from the water.Faison collapsed but got back up and walked into the water. There, his family claims, officers fired the Taser at him multiple times, against the district and Taser manufacturer’s orders, at one point stating, “He is not going to make it.”The officers watched him yell for help for nearly 40 minutes until he lost consciousness and then dragged him out of the water. At no point did the officers render CPR to Faison, the family claims.Faison has been in a coma and on life support since that day.Faison’s family sought punitive and statutory damages against the officers and the district on claims of assault, violations of his constitutional rights, negligence, false imprisonment and misrepresenting the harm he endured to medical staff.In June 2025, U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley allowed claims against the East Bay Regional Park District to move forward, finding its failure to train officers was so obvious it could amount to deliberate policy.“He was tased in the water, in the estuary, in violation of policy, including the Taser company’s, and then was left there without aid for 40 minutes. That seems to me to support an inference of a need for training that is so obvious,” the Joe Biden appointee said.That December, Corely dismissed portions of Faison’s Fourth Amendment claim, 14th Amendment claim and false imprisonment claim, while advancing others to trial.The judge ruled that while Knea’s first two Taser discharges did not violate the Fourth Amendment, claims tied to the third, fourth and fifth discharges may go to trial. Monell and Bane Act claims also survived, along with negligence, battery and punitive damages claims against Knea.Punitive damages against the parks district were also dismissed.In analyzing the claims, Corely drew a distinction between the first two Taser discharges — when Faison was actively fleeing — and the final three, which occurred when he was at or near the water. Qualified immunity exists for the first two, the judge ruled.The East Bay Regional Park District is a special district that operates within Alameda and Contra Costa counties in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. It maintains its own police and fire departments, separate from the counties.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads