SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) – San Mateo County has filed its response to the lawsuit brought after its sheriff’s deputies shot and killed a mentally ill woman wandering the streets with a shotgun and a bottle of wine.
The county filed its motion to dismiss May 17 in San Francisco federal court in a lawsuit stemming from the death of Sandra Lee Harmon – a mentally ill woman who was shot eight times in Half Moon Bay.
Sarah Gatliff filed the in March as the successor in interest of Harmon’s estate. Gatliff is Harmon’s daughter.
“Gatliff has not filed the required affidavit to show that she is the successor in interest to Harmon and pleads no facts to support it either,” the motion says. “Absent standing, all claims Gatliff asserts on behalf of the decedent fail and must be dismissed.”
According to the suit, in May 2020 Harmon was walking the streets of Half Moon Bay with a shotgun and a bottle of wine. She was "warning people to be safe" in the "impending race war," and a concerned bystander called 911.
Harmon then entered an RV in a restaurant parking lot, which defendant Deputy Dominguez approached and ordered Harmon to exit, the suit says. After she complied while holding her shotgun, Dominguez allegedly fired three rounds at Harmon, who then began firing her shotgun, the suit says.
A shootout occurred in which the plaintiff says Harmon was shot multiple times while her back was to the deputies, the suit says. When Harmon reached for her shotgun, she was shot six more times, the suit says.
District attorney defendants are included in the suit for allegedly mishandling body camera footage and refusing to subpoena the company that records the footage.
The county says Gatliff has failed to plead any facts that show deputies acted inappropriately.
“Gatliff’s own allegations, presumed true, indicate just the opposite – that the deputies acted in the legitimate law enforcement objective of self-defense in response to an armed individual,” the motion says.