Family of man killed by Fresno police in 2019 reaches conditional settlement with city

A conditional settlement has been reached in a lawsuit filed against the city of Fresno by the family of a man shot to death by police inside an apartment in 2019, officials confirm.

Court records do not reveal details of the proposed settlement.

Officers with SWAT shot and killed Oliver Hernandez, 29, on Jan. 5, 2019, after a roughly six-hour standoff at the Village Apartments on Ninth Street and Bulldog Lane.

Police said he was armed with an ax.

Hernandez’s family has said Hernandez was sitting down when he was shot and was not an immediate threat to anyone because he was alone.

The family sued the city on Jan. 1, 2020, alleging wrongful death, negligence, battery and violation of civil rights.

The case was scheduled for a jury trial beginning Monday, but court records show a conditional settlement was reached Wednesday.

Attorney Stuart Chandler, who represents Hernandez’s mother, said Saturday that there are still some details that need to be worked out, including approval from the City Council.

Councilmember Miguel Arias expressed frustration with the city’s practice to insist officers acted according to policy yet pay out a hefty settlement to avoid a more costly sum in a trial.

“I want to make sure that these kind of cases have intellectual honesty,” he said. “We should be willing to make that case to a jury instead of talk out of both sides of our mouth.”

Taking the case to court would show whether the city’s policies are truly correct or if they need to be reformed, he said.

Recent settlements in such cases by the city include a $4.4 million payout in the excessive force case in the 2015 police shooting death of Casimero “Shane” Casillas.