Jurors in San Francisco Thursday exonerated the city of Walnut Creek and four of its officers in connection with the shooting death of a 22-year-old man during a bizarre altercation at the Creekside town home complex in December 2012.
Antony Banta Jr., who worked as a hairdresser in the city, was shot and killed by officers who encountered him as he brandished a chef’s knife at the top of a stairwell at the complex around 3 p.m. the morning of Dec. 27, 2012.
Police had been summoned to the residence by the girlfriend of Banta’s roommate – who told dispatchers she woke up to find Banta on top of and choking her boyfriend, lost in a violent rage totally out of character for him.
“I think maybe he’s sleepwalking,” the woman could be heard saying on a 911 tape played for the jurors as the couple called police after barricading themselves in their bedroom.
Officers told the court that as they approached the apartment that morning they found Banta standing at the top of a stairwell, a chef’s knife in his upraised hand. Banta reportedly ignored several orders to drop the knife and instead told officers to shoot him, the officers opening fire when Banta suddenly rushed down the stairs, knife in hand.
Despite what was later determined to be a crippling shot to the hand inflicted as he rushed down the stairs Banta reportedly still gripped the knife as he lay wounded, jurors heard. Believing him to still be a danger Sgt. Mike Sugrue and Officer Guy Ezard fired a second round of shots, including one believed to be the fatal shot, which struck Banta in the eye.
Banta’s parents sued the city of Walnut Creek, Sugrue, Ezard and two other officers for $15 million after the shooting, maintaining that the slightly built Banta posed no threat that night, that the officers initially fired in a panic and that the officer’s additional shots constituted excessive force. Officers Holley Connors and Amber Griffith were dismissed as defendants in the suit as only the second – fatal – round of gunfire was eventually considered.
Expert witnesses hired by Banta’s family testified that the second volley of shots represented excessive force, and that Banta should have been regarded as mentally ill as soon as police heard his demands that they shoot him.
Sugrue told the court that the woman who had called police that morning approached him after the shooting, Sugrue learning for the first time that Banta was not an intruder as officers believed but a roommate whose behavior that night had turned violent and totally of character.
The roommates told officers and investigators looking into the circumstances surrounding the shooting that Banta had returned home the previous evening at about 6 p.m. after visiting his family in Yuba City for the Christmas holidays.
They said Banta made everyone dinner, that they all exchanged Christmas presents, then watched a movie. The roommate’s girlfriend said Banta went out at about 9 p.m. for a short walk. She said she and her boyfriend were upstairs in their room at about 10 p.m. She went to sleep while her boyfriend stayed up and played video games and that when she next awakened it was to see Banta attempting to strangle her boyfriend – Banta’s friend and roommate.
A forensic pathologist said that investigators found no indication that Banta had previous psychotic episodes. Extensive toxicology tests showed that Banta had low levels of alcohol and marijuana in his system. The 0.013 blood-alcohol level was not enough to cause any change in behavior, and it was difficult from tests to determine when Banta had ingested marijuana—anywhere from within five hours of death to 30 days.
The pathologist offered three possible explanations for Banta’s behavior that morning: He took a designer drug that isn’t detectable on even the most sophisticated toxicology tests, he had an undiagnosed mental illness, or he suffered from a form of marijuana-produced psychosis that has been noted in medical literature over the past decade.
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I remember reading this story (on this site) and it’s as bizarre today as it was when it happened. I agree with the jurors decision. My guess would be undiagnosed mental illness. Very sad.
Yes, Danielle, we were hoping there may be some answers to this one some four years after the fact but it appears it is not to be.
Sometimes I guess there are just NO answers to these things. At least easy ones. Do people just break like that?
Pretty crazy.. Some sort of designer drug? With no history of hurting people it would have to be something pretty crazy to make him act out like that.
He cut my hair on a few occasions and seemed like a very nice, very gentle young man. we were absolutely stunned to hear this news when it first appeared here. And yes, it would be nice to have some answers. I’m sure the family is shattered.
They were NOT exonerated. There is a big difference between answer 8 specific questions that had legal verbiage that was not 100% clear … and saying that it was okay in any way for them to fire a second time. Stay tuned.
The toxicology report found NO TRACE of any designer drugs or anything other than 5mg THC, which is a very low amount, and THC can remain in the system for 30 days. He was either sleepwalking during a night terror, which is rare but can happen and there are historical records of that – or he it may have been the onset of schizophrenia. He was definitely not responding to the officers in a rational manner – they were scared and did not know how to manage the crisis – our peace officers and 911 dispatchers need more training, better training, and the laws need to be more specific about what they are expected to do when encountering a person having a mental event. It can happen to anyone, anytime.
And in fact it did happen again to Miles Hall with the same officer, Holley Connors, in charge of the officers who killed Miles June 2nd, 2019 in the throes of a schizoaffective episode. Except in Miles’ case, Walnut Creek PD KNEW Miles, knew he was mentally disabled and off his meds; PD knew the family wanted to get him 5150’d for medical help, knew he was not an intruder or stranger in the community, knew he had broken no laws, knew he did not have a gun or history of violence of any sort, knew, knew, knew. And yet Holley Connors once again criminalized mental illness and allowed an impaired young man to get shot on her watch.
But not to worry, one of the other officers who shot Banta in 2012, Guy Ezard, made endorsed Barry Grove in his failed bid for Walnut Creek City Council. Now Deputy DA Barry Grove is “investigating” Ezard’s fellow shooter, Holley Connors, along with her officers, Melissa Murphy and KC Hsiao, who killed Miles Hall 6/2/19. No conflict of interest here at all. Nothing to see here, so move along. Let’s just keep letting ill equipped, poorly trained, biased, skittish police officers keep killing our mentally ill citizens.
As Gandhi said, “The true measure of any society is how it treats its most vulnerable members.”
Learn more at http://www.justiceformileshall.org
Not buying the pot induced psychosis theory. Are there drugs out there that can trigger this kind of reaction and not turn up in a medical exam?
The cops said that Washington mall shooter was in a zombie like state too. It’s either a state of extreme psychosis or the result of some type of drug IMHO
Stay away from cops. It’s the best policy.
Or how about don’t strangle people in the night and then approach the police with a butcher knife. Because they simply reacted to his violent actions and threat. Stop blaming the cops for the sins of others. They saved at least two other innocent people that night and should be lauded. Its sad that they had to take that action, but let me rush you with a butcher knife and you let me know if you fear for your safety.