Sacramento, county sued for wrongful death in 3 incidents involving law enforcement
The families of three men who died during incidents involving Sacramento law enforcement personnel filed separate wrongful death lawsuits in December against the city and county.
The lawsuits include incidents in which a jail inmate was strangled by his cellmate; a man was fatally shot by deputies; and a bystander who died during a police chase.
A Sacramento police spokesperson and Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Amar Gandhi both declined to comment on the lawsuits because of ongoing litigation. They did not immediately provide the names of the deputies and officers involved in the incidents, or answer whether they were still employed.
Fatal police chase
On June 7, Sacramento police responded to a domestic violence call on Farm Dale Way near the Pocket neighborhood, according to a police news release at the time. The suspect, Daniel Allen Cunningham, who had an active felony warrant, fled. The officers followed in a vehicle pursuit along Florin Road into the Pocket neighborhood. Cunningham ran a red light at Greenhaven Drive and crashed into the vehicle of another man, police said.
That man, Huynh Huu Duc Nguyen, 30 of Elk Grove, died at the scene.
Nguyen’s wife Thi My Le Phung, of Vietnam, on Dec. 19 filed a suit in Sacramento Superior Court against the city, the Sacramento Police Department, Sacramento County and Cunningham.
The suit alleges the officers drove at unsafe speeds and violated police pursuit guidelines. It requests compensatory damages.
The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office will not be evaluating whether any officers or deputies should be criminally charged as part of a “use of force” incident, said Shelly Orio, a DA’s Office spokesperson.
After the crash, police arrested Cunningham. He remains in custody on felony charges for evading and domestic violence and is being held without bail at the Sacramento County Main Jail, according to a county jail records.
A 2022 Sacramento Bee investigation found the Sacramento had a high vehicle pursuit rate compared to other large cities in the state.
Sacramento jail homicide
The family of a man who was fatally strangled by his cellmate in the Sacramento County Main Jail is suing the county alleging jail staff put their loved one in danger.
Daniel Thompson, 36, was in jail on March 12 for a nonviolent offense, according to the suit, filed in Sacramento Superior Court on Dec. 31.
Just after 7 p.m. March 12, an inmate pressed the emergency button in his cell and alerted deputies that he had been in a fight with his cellmate, the Sheriff’s Office wrote in a social media post at the time. Deputies responded and found Thompson lying on the floor. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The suit alleges the county’s medical personnel failed to adequately perform a psychiatric evaluation of Sergey Gutsu, Thompson’s cellmate, that would have revealed he was a serious risk to others. It also alleges the staff did not follow policies regarding inmate classification, housing and welfare checks.
Kim Nava, a Sacramento County spokesperson, and Gandhi both declined comment because they said the Sheriff’s Office and county cannot comment on pending litigation.
The suit seeks compensatory damages as well as a $25,000 civil penalty.
The coroner’s office determined the cause and manner of death to be a homicide by ligature strangulation. It also determined Thompson had been homeless at the time of death.
Thompson was one of at least six Sacramento County inmates who died in 2025, according to news releases and coroner death reports. He was the only reported homicide.
A criminal case against Gutsu, who remains in custody in the jail, is ongoing.
Vineyard shooting death
The mother of man who was fatally shot by sheriff’s deputies is suing the county alleging the man was in a visible mental health crisis.
On Dec. 30, 2024, sheriff’s deputies responded a house in Sacramento County’s Vineyard area to assist Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District personnel with a call for service for a man who was “hallucinating, thinking there were people on the roof trying to kill him and his parents,” according to a Sheriff’s Office news release at the time.
The man charged at a deputy with a large kitchen knife during de-escalation tactics, and so deputies shot him with less-lethal weapons, the release said. When he continued to advance toward the deputies, they shot him.
Asma Mojaddidi had been the one who called public safety personnel for service for her son, Faisal Mojaddidi, who was experiencing a mental health crisis, according to the suit filed Dec. 17 in federal court.
The suit alleges deputies did not give Mojaddidi warnings ahead of deploying less-lethal force and deadly force. It also alleges deputies failed to utilize proper de-escalation tactics for dealing with people experiencing active mental health crises.
Nava did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Gandhi declined comment because the office cannot comment on pending litigation, he said. He did not immediately provide the names of the deputies involved, or answer whether they were still employed.
The Sheriff’s Office has not yet posted any documents or media from the case on its transparency webpage.
The District Attorney’s Office has not yet announced whether the deputies will be criminally charged.
The suit seeks compensatory damages.
