The attorney representing K'aun Green, a 20-year-old Black man whom San Jose police shot outside of La Victoria Taqueria early Sunday morning, said his client was handcuffed to his hospital bed for multiple days and unable to see his family until Wednesday morning.
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Oakland civil rights lawyer Adante Pointer told KCBS Radio in a phone interview on Wednesday afternoon that Green's parents didn’t know whether their son was dead or alive for "almost a full day" until the San Jose Police Department informed them he was hospitalized.
Green was informed on Tuesday, the same day San Jose police held a press conference about the shooting, that he was no longer in police custody.
"It was then at that point that he was allowed to see family, but visiting hours are over," Pointer told KCBS Radio. "You know, it was like, 'Thanks, but no thanks.' "
Pointer said this was "one of the things" that has Green's family "up in arms." He said his firm intends to file a lawsuit against the San Jose Police Department and the City of San Jose on behalf of Green to ensure he "receives the resources he deserves."
Citing pending litigation, spokespeople from the San Jose Police Department and City of San Jose declined to comment to KCBS Radio on Wednesday night. The spokespeople said in separate emails that an investigation into the shooting was ongoing.
A City of San Jose spokesperson didn't respond to KCBS Radio's email and voicemail requesting comment prior to publication.
Officials said a four-year veteran of the San Jose Police Department shot a man, whom Pointer identified as Green, outside of the downtown San Jose taqueria at 3:11 a.m. on Sunday. Police initially said the victim was an armed suspect, whom officers discovered about 30 minutes after a man was shot and killed nearby.
The department's media relations unit tweeted on Sunday morning that "preliminary" information indicated that the suspect pointed a handgun at another person. The Mercury News reported on Monday, citing sources familiar with the investigation, that the shooting victim disarmed a gunman after breaking up a fight.
Police said the same thing during Tuesday's press conference, and Pointer first identified Green, a Contra Costa College football player, as the victim in an interview with the paper.
San Jose Police Chief Anthony Mata and Assistant Chief of Police Paul Joseph said it wasn’t clear to responding officers that the gun Green held wasn't his when he was shot while holding it and backing out of the taqueria.
Pointer said the press conference "glossed over" the department's treatment of Green "like a criminal suspect."
"He was a world-class athlete with a promising future," Pointer said. "And to be now lying in a hospital bed hoping to regain your same physical prowess, which is far from guaranteed? That's a hard thing to ask a young man to wrap their head around, when he was doing nothing other than trying to save himself and everybody else."
Pointer said he is hopeful Green can fully recover from his injuries. He told KGO earlier on Wednesday that Green was shot in the abs, an arm and a leg.
Contra Costa College Athletic Director John Wade told KCBS Radio that Green had hoped to transfer to a four-year school to play football, with multiple outlets reporting he received an offer from Fresno State University in January. Wade said the school hadn’t yet visited Green on Wednesday afternoon, having heard he was only recently allowed to see visitors.
"Everything I was getting was, like, 'He was at the wrong place at the wrong time' type of thing, not that he did anything," Wade said of learning about the shooting over the past few days. "I never got one thing that he did anything. And then when it came out, it was kind of like, 'I got it.' "
"That he was trying to help by disarming someone that may have had a weapon, and he was being a good Samaritan, basically," Wade added.
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