Case headed to jury trial after federal court upheld Fourth Amendment violation against Sparks police
Rolando Brizuela was shot nearly a dozen times by Sparks Police in 2018. He was shot in his side and back. Brizuela’s alleged crime was stealing a skateboard and punching the board’s owner, an adolescent.
When Sparks Police investigated the situation, a call over the assault and theft, they knew Brizuela may be armed. During an interrogation, Brizuela repeatedly told officers to get off of his property. That property was a unit in a Sparks multiplex.
“Don’t come up here,” Brizuela is reported to have said. “You’re not allowed up here. You’re trespassing. You know you guys are breaking your laws. You can’t come up here without a judge saying you can.”
Sparks Police officers Brian Sullivan and Eli Maile refused to leave after Brizuela told them he did not have to answer their questions. When they saw Brizuela had retrieved a firearm, which was held at his side facing away from them, they repeatedly ordered him to drop the weapon.
Brizuela refused. “Go. Go ahead. Shoot,” he told them.
They did.
Brizuela was in a gated patio area attached to his apartment.
Washoe County District Attorney Chris Hicks determined the police shooting was justified. He called Brizuela’s behavior bizarre, violent and dangerous, citing a 2017 involuntary hospital admission for mental health treatment. Brizuela’s mental health history, however, was not known to the responding officers at the time of the response.
“The Officers detained Brizuela on the curtilage of his home without a warrant or probable cause, and questioned him while he repeatedly asked them to leave.”
“Brizuela knocked [the teen] to the ground, punched him in his face and took his skateboard,” the DA’s report noted of the incident. “When [he] tried to retrieve it, once again it was Rosa, (Brizuela’s wife] who gave [a] warning to ignore Brizuela that included his having access to a firearm. It is clear that Rosa, as well as her son Morgan, who initially denied witnessing the encounter, were concerned about Brizuela’s mental health and thought he may be a danger to himself and others.”
Hicks called the officers’ response valiant.
“Both officers remained calm throughout the encounter even when Brizuela racked the slide of his weapon,” the DA’s report noted. “Brizuela’s actions signaled an increasing threat to the officers, yet they remained calm and actively tried to de-escalate the situation. It was not until Brizuela began raising his pistol that the officers defended themselves by shooting at Brizuela.”
Fourth Amendment violation confirmed by a federal appeals court
Brizuela’s location and his repeated comments for the officers to leave his property have been the subject of a federal lawsuit against the Sparks Police Department over the killing. Brizuela’s family sued the city and alleged several violations, including unreasonable search and seizure, excessive force, due process violations and interference with the right to bear arms.
Federal District Court Judge Miranda Du found in favor of Brizuela on some of those claims.
“Because reasonable jurors could differ about whether Mr. Brizuela had an objectively reasonable expectation of privacy in the walkway, the Court declines to grant summary judgment to either party on whether a search occurred by the Officers entering the walkway without Mr. Brizuela’s consent,” Du ruled. “But irrespective of whether Mr. Brizuela had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the walkway, summary judgment is appropriate because the Officers were on the porch for the majority of the encounter.”
Sparks tried to say Brizuela’s porch was not part of his curtilage, but the judges said this was not persuasive. The judges also noted that officers ignored Brizuela’s requests to end the encounter.
“Given that the Officers lacked a search warrant, their presence on the porch must fall within an exception to the warrant requirement; otherwise, it is an unreasonable search of the home,” Du wrote.
Sparks, however, appealed the case to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld one of the three claims. The Ninth Circuit court agreed with Du on the Fourth Amendment violation but overturned other claims.
“Detaining and questioning a suspect on the curtilage of their property without a warrant constitutes a presumptively unreasonable search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment unless an exception to the warrant requirement applies,” the judges ruled. “The Officers detained Brizuela on the curtilage of his home without a warrant or probable cause, and questioned him while he repeatedly asked them to leave.”
Sparks, however, appealed the case even further. Last year, Sparks City attorneys filed the case with the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court denied Sparks’ petition on June 17, 2024. The case is now scheduled for trial in 2025.
Sparks Police Chief Chris Crawforth said he could not comment on pending litigation, but Sparks Attorney Wes Duncan said a settlement is possible between now and the court date.
“We generally do not comment on the specifics of pending cases,” Duncan said. “Procedurally, a jury trial has been set to begin Feb. 25, 2025, and this case will proceed to trial unless the parties settle the case between now and then.”
The DA’s report, which found the shooting justified, made no mention of the illegal search and seizure. The adolescent’s skateboard was found on Brizuela’s property after he was killed.
