Mother of man fatally shot by police at Huntington Beach field is seeking witnesses

The mother of a 29-year-old man fatally shot by Huntington Beach police in March is seeking information from anyone who may have witnessed the shooting.

Angela Hernandez’s son, Steven Schiltz, was shot and killed by two officers on a soccer field at the Huntington Central Park Sports Complex on March 9. In July Hernandez filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit seeking $20 million in damages from the city and two officers.

During a news conference Wednesday, Hernandez encouraged witnesses who could provide information about the circumstances leading up to the shooting to reach out to her Woodland Hills-based attorney, Dale Galipo.

“When something like this happens, you have to seek justice,” she said Wednesday. “That’s why I’m here.”

The lawsuit alleges wrongful death, excessive force and inadequate training on the part of the officers, as well as negligence and battery. It also alleges that law enforcement failed to call for medical care for Schiltz in a timely fashion, resulting in his death.

“This is a very defensible case,” City Atty. Michael Gates said. “The officers quite frankly did everything according to protocol and saved lives. I commend the work of our police officers involved and the leadership of the Police Department in the work that they do.”

According to the lawsuit, Schiltz, a Huntington Beach resident who suffered from mental illness, was at the sports complex to play in a softball game sponsored by an adult softball league.

He was walking between fields in search of his team when one or more unidentified people beat him and attacked him with a knife, the complaint alleges.

“As a result of his injuries, Mr. Schiltz was bleeding profusely and may have become disoriented,” the lawsuit states.

The suit says Schiltz was running from his assailants and was unarmed when the officers opened fire.

Police said at the time that they had responded to the complex at about 7:20 p.m. after receiving emergency calls about a man with a bat and a broken bottle who was hitting trees and chasing people around the fields.

Jose Sanchez, a club soccer coach who witnessed the shooting, told the Daily Pilot in March that the fields were packed with children and families that night. He said he watched as Schiltz chased an adult baseball player onto the field where a girls’ soccer team was practicing.

Sanchez said two officers entered the field with their guns drawn and ordered Schiltz, who looked like he was about to swing at a woman sitting on the bleachers, to drop what he was holding. Sanchez said the object appeared to be a broken bottle.

According to Sanchez, officers fired three shots at Schiltz but he kept moving toward the woman. The officers fired three or four more rounds, Sanchez said.

Schiltz was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said. Hernandez said no one other than her son was injured and she doesn’t suspect he intended to hurt anyone.

Hernandez’s lawsuit comes in a year when Huntington Beach police have logged seven officer-involved shootings, more than in any other year this decade, according to Police Department archives.

Her suit states that “the lack of evidence that any of the officers involved in the seven shootings in 2017 have been disciplined, reprimanded, retrained, suspended or otherwise penalized in connection with the respective shootings also provide evidence that the city of Huntington Beach has a practice of ratifying officer-involved shootings and finding them to be within policy.”

The case is scheduled for trial in September 2018.

hannah.fry@latimes.com

Twitter: @HannahFryTCN