Officer Daniel Gold shot 16-year-old Konoa Wilson on Jan. 28 as the teen ran from gunfire at Santa Fe Depot.
SAN DIEGO — The San Diego City Council on Tuesday will weigh a $30 million settlement with the family of Konoa Wilson, a 16-year-old who died after a police officer shot him during a burst of gunfire at the downtown Santa Fe Depot in January.
The proposed payout, among the largest tied to a police killing, underscores how quickly the civil case advanced and how much legal exposure city lawyers saw after reviewing video and witness accounts. The officer, identified as Daniel Gold, fired twice, striking Wilson in the back before announcing he was police, according to the family’s lawsuit and clips released from body-worn camera footage. The resolution scheduled for Dec. 9 would resolve the family’s wrongful-death and civil-rights claims and tap the city’s public liability fund, pending formal approval.
What happened that night remains partly visible on camera and partly obscured by the chaos. Investigators say gunfire erupted near the platforms around 8 p.m., sending riders ducking behind columns and baggage carts. Surveillance video shows Wilson sprinting away from the shots toward a walkway, where Gold encountered him. Family attorneys say only about a second passed before Gold fired two rounds and then identified himself. Medics took Wilson to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. A handgun was recovered from Wilson, authorities have said, but officials have not said he fired it or aimed it at officers. “He was running for his life,” attorney Nicholas Rowley said in a statement.
Police placed Gold on administrative duty while internal affairs, the department’s shooting review board and the county district attorney conduct parallel reviews, standard after fatal force. The City Attorney’s Office added the settlement to the Council agenda after closed-door discussions and briefings on the litigation. The agenda memo says the payment would come from the city’s liability fund, which covers judgments and settlements, and would rank among San Diego’s largest payouts. City officials have not released a detailed timetable for the administrative reviews, and the name of the initial gunman at the station remains unknown to the public.
San Diego’s proposal arrives as multimillion-dollar settlements over police killings continue to shape municipal risk. Minneapolis approved $27 million in the George Floyd case in 2021; if finalized, San Diego’s agreement would exceed that figure. The Santa Fe Depot—an early 20th century station ringed by hotels and office towers—was busy that Sunday night with regional rail traffic. Video from transit cameras and officer body cameras has provided investigators with frame-by-frame sequences, which city lawyers studied as they negotiated. Police union leaders have emphasized the split-second nature of decisions made during active gunfire near civilians, while civil rights advocates argue the footage shows a misidentification and a failure of de-escalation.
Approval would close the civil case but leave employment and potential criminal decisions ahead. If the Council votes yes Tuesday morning, the City Attorney is expected to finalize paperwork within days and notify the federal court that the parties have settled. The Police Department’s use-of-force review could set training or policy changes, and the district attorney will determine whether the shooting was criminal or justified; neither office has provided a date for those outcomes. Budget staff plan to report on the liability fund’s balance during the next committee cycle, a routine step after a large payout.
At the station plaza this weekend, a small memorial of candles and flowers sat near the curb. Commuter Liana Ortiz, who uses the depot several times a week, said she remembers the fear of that January night: “It was a stampede for a few seconds, people trying to find walls.” A family representative thanked residents who left notes and said Wilson should be remembered as a student and son. “The settlement is about accountability,” said community organizer Devon Brown, “but we still need answers about how a kid running away ended up dead.”
As of Monday, the Council item remained on the open-session agenda for Tuesday’s meeting. If the measure passes, the settlement will move to execution and the case will shift into the hands of internal and prosecutorial reviewers. The next public milestone is the Council vote slated for Tuesday morning; findings from the internal and criminal reviews are pending.
Author note: Last updated December 8, 2025.