Fresno County supervisors agreed Friday to settle the case of an unarmed homeless man shot to death by deputies that a plaintiff’s attorney says spurred the Sheriff’s Office to put bodycams on law enforcement.

The 11-year-old daughter and mother of Kenny Mullins will together receive $3.125 million for the 2020 shooting, said attorney Nicholas “Butch” Wagner, who represented Mullins’ family.

Wagner said the case was instrumental in pushing the sheriff’s office to get bodycams for deputies. Following the court granting injunctive relief to compel the sheriff’s office to put the cameras on deputies, Wagner said a decision was made to implement them department-wide.

He said bodycams not only protect citizens, but also protect law enforcement and reduce litigation.

“I think it’s safe to say that this case had the biggest influence on why Fresno sheriff’s deputies now have body cams,” Wagner said. “Those are important. They’re for the safety of everybody because police seem to act more carefully. They’re for the safety of the cops, too, because they can show that if someone deserves the punishment they got or the restraint they got, then you have video proof of it.”

Fresno County officials declined to comment on the settlement, which must receive federal court approval.

The settlement came after U.S. District Court Judge Kirk E. Sherriff ruled in August that reserve deputies Chris Curtice and Alex Riordan would face a civil rights lawsuit trial in the killing of Mullins.

Report From One Deputy ‘Integral’ to Finding Out the Truth: Wagner

One deputy’s statement as to how the encounter with the then-32-year-old Mullins differed from that of other deputies was key in determining the truth, Wagner said.

According to court documents, on March 6, 2020, deputies got a call from a property owner about Mullins sleeping inside of his auto dismantling shop in southwest Fresno. Deputies were told that Mullins had a shotgun near him.

Sheriffs sent in a robot to observe Mullins, who kicked the device aside. They then called to him from a loudspeaker, and it took Mullins, who had a history of mental health issues, about 30 to 60 minutes to come out, court records state.

How Mullins came out and responded to deputies’ orders, however, differs.

The two deputies who killed Mullins, Curtice and Riordan, said that Mullins did not comply after deputies told him to get on the ground. Instead, they said he “suddenly turned to his right, faced the officers, and got into a shooting stance, pointing what Curtice and Riordan perceived to be a gun in their direction,” court documents state.

Riordan yelled that Mullins had a gun and they fired at him, hitting him once in the head and once in the leg. He died at the scene.

Deputy Zachary Westbrook, however, told internal affairs after the incident that he didn’t recall the order for Mullins to get on the ground. What’s more, Westbrook remembered Mullins putting his hands up and not pretending to have a gun, court documents state.

“Curtice and Riordan, the killers, made up this story that Kenny, when he came out, had his hands in his pocket and he pulled his hands out of his pocket and pointed his hands to the cops,” Wagner said. “The cops thought he had a gun, and that’s why they shot him.”

Westbrook’s statement came only a couple hours after the incident, Wagner said.

“That testimony went a long way because it was testimony given before Riordan and Curtice made up their bullshit story,” Wagner said.

About Kenny Mullins

The victim was born in Selma and attended Kingsburg High School. He later worked in restaurants and for various farm companies as a forklift driver, mechanic, and general laborer.

According to court records, he had convictions for drunken driving, vandalism, attempted robbery and receiving stolen property.