Family Decries 'Senseless' Police Slaying of San Juan Man

Updated at 10 a.m. April 29 with information about Flood's criminal record.

At least one bullet streaked by 78-year-old Barbara Flood as she sat on her living room couch Saturday, watching her son die "senselessly" in a scuffle with two lawmen.

The couch was later sliced up by investigators trying to retrieve the slug as evidence in the shooting of San Juan Capistrano resident Kerry Flood, 52, who had been visiting his mother's Santa Maria home.

Family spokeswoman Donna Sousy, the wife of Kerry Flood's nephew, recounted these and other details Thursday, saying much of the information put out by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department was misleading. "We were advised by an attorney not to make any public statements, but it's gotten to the point where we don't have any other choice," she said in a telephone interview.

Soucy said Flood was frightened and shaken by the arrival of two deputies at his elderly mother’s mobile home shortly after noon Saturday. He was out in the backyard when they showed up to investigate reports of a man dressed only in a towel and acting bizarrely—a description that puzzles his family, who said Flood wasn't drinking or taking any medications.

He was wearing a towel, Soucy said, but only because he had been at the quiet retirement community's pool, where he apparently got into some sort of confrontation with a woman.

According to Sousy, the woman followed Kerry to his mother's home and called authorities. When the lawmen arrived, they told his mother, "Hey, nobody's in trouble, we just wanna talk with Kerry," Sousy said.

When the deputies tried to enter the home, Barbara told them to wait outside, where Kerry would meet them and discuss what had happened at the clubhouse. They spotted movement inside the residence, so the supervising deputy sent his partner to the back of the house to investigate, Sousy said.

"At this point, no real crime had been committed. [Barbara] had asked them to wait outside," Sousy said. "They took it upon themselves to enter the home, one from the front, and one from the back. They pretty much had Kerry cornered."

According to the Sheriff's Department, . The family maintains Kerry was inside the home at that point, holding the paver "chest high as if he was reading a book–asking [his mother] to protect him," Sousy said.

"We’re not too sure why he picked up the paver, whether it was for self-defense … that one we’re not clear on," said Sousy. "Had [the request for deputies to stay outside] been honored in the first place, I don’t think we’d be talking today."

Before resorting to lethal force, deputies tried twice to knock Kerry out with Tasers, with no luck. Sousy said the Tasers were ineffective because Kerry had changed into a thick bathrobe.

But after one of the jolts, Sousy said, Kerry swung the paver at one of the deputies. According to the Sheriff's Department, he hit the deputy in the head, causing a gash that later required a brief hospitalization. In response, at least one of the deputies opened fire. Four shots rang out, the family said.

"Barbara was sitting on the couch, probably 12 feet away from where all of this was happening," Soucy said. "This is a situation that happened in seconds ... there was such rapid fire that I have a hard time understanding that anyone put a whole lot of thought into it."

Kerry was pronounced dead at the scene. A bullet to the chest was listed as the official cause of death, Sheriff's Department spokesman Drew Sugars said Thursday. But that's the only detail being released from the recently concluded autopsy report. 

Sugars said he could not comment on the family’s account of events, including the number of shots fired. "I don't want to get into the specifics, because I wasn't there," he said.

Aside from two traffic violations, Flood has no criminal record in Orange County. However, San Bernardino County Superior Court records show he served one day in county jail in 2009, and paid a $400 fine, after pleading no contest to fighting/making noise/using offensive words during an encounter with police in 2006.

Charges that he had evaded police and obstructed or resisted a peace officer in that same incident were dismissed. 

The Santa Barbara Medical Examiner is expected to submit its report to the district attorney's office within a few weeks. The D.A. will use that, along with internal Sheriff's Department investigations, to determine whether criminal charges should be filed against the two deputies, whose names will be released to the public next week, Sugars said.

According to Sheriff Department policy, deputies may use deadly force to protect themselves or others from what they believe to be an imminent threat of serious bodily injury.

Soucy thinks the deputies overreacted. "I think perhaps there is a training issue here," she said. "The family is not interested in money, but we are interested in seeing some type of justice, something that can make this right so it doesn’t happen again. It was absolutely senseless."

In the meantime, she said, family members had flown in from across the country to comfort Kerry's mother and to "make things feel right and normal again."