Fridoon Rawshan Nehad was shot and killed by a police officer in a Midway alleyway in April.
For the first time, Nehad’s family is speaking out about the circumstances surrounding the shooting, which was recorded by a nearby surveillance video that’s yet to be released to the public.
In an in-depth Q-and-A with VOSD’s Liam Dillon, Nehad’s sister, Benazeer Roshan, details the struggles her brother went through before escaping a warring Afghanistan for the United States. She and her mother also talk about Nehad’s devastating battle with bipolar disorder, describe their interactions with what they describe as a stonewalling San Diego Police Department and call the surveillance video footage that recorded the shooting as, “The most soul-crushing thing in the world.”
The interview turns many narratives about the shooting on their head. Nehad was not homeless, his family reveals. He did, however, take long walks through the city at night during episodes, because the city lights made him feel less alone, they said.
“I think that no person in the world, in the entire universe, can see that video and come to the conclusion that my brother was attacking a police officer,” Roshan told Dillon.
At least one other person who’s seen the video agrees.
The officer in the case, Neal Browder, has said Nehad was threatening him with a metallic pen that looked like a knife when he shot him. The city agrees with the officer’s assessment and the district attorney declined to file criminal charges against the officer, saying the evidence clearly supports his version of events.
So which story does the video support?
On Tuesday morning, a federal court judge will hear a motion filed by us and other local media outlets to make the surveillance video of Nehad’s shooting public. The video, which came from a private business, was turned over to the family of Nehad as part of their wrongful death lawsuit against the city, but only on the condition it be kept secret.
The family is supporting the media’s request to unseal the video. We don’t know when the judge might make a decision about the video’s release, but will keep you posted.
Google Wants to Hit San Diego’s Ground Running
When Google announced in September that San Diego is on the list of cities it’s considering to be on the receiving end of Google Fiber, its super fast internet infrastructure and services, the socially awkward IT crowd went wild.
Seriously, though, people are stoked about the possibility of getting the type of warp-speed internet connection that allows you to use six wireless devices at once while downloading huge movie files in a matter of seconds.
Google is in the middle of scoping things out in San Diego, making sure things like topography and the local government are favorable before officially green lighting the project. VOSD contributor Jennifer McEntee checks in with both the internet giant and city officials to see how the courtship is going (those IT folks are crossing their fingers right now, hoping like heck that the city doesn’t manage to mess this up somehow).
McEntee also talks to competitors who are upping their internet speed game, too.
San Diego’s Climate Action Plan on Path to Final Approval
The city of San Diego’s climate action plan is a bundle of policies meant to lower the city’s carbon footprint moving forward. On Tuesday, the the plan will go to City Council for final approval.
Over the weekend, San Diego Union-Tribune’s Joshua Emerson Smith kicked off a three-day series looking into the city’s climate plan.
The first piece focuses on the plan’s push for transit-oriented development and discusses how community groups and the whole not-in-my-backyard mentality can often be at odds with the type of high-density buildings around transit centers that the plan envisions. You don’t say.
Lots of other cities also have climate plans or they’re working on one, VOSD’s Maya Srikrishnan reported in November. The county has a climate plan, too, but that one’s been officially deemed weak-sauce.
About Those Card Room Raids
The U-T’s Greg Moran has some colorful-sounding characters in his latest story.
A guy named David “Fat Dave” Stroj is at the center of a two-year federal investigation of an illegal gambling ring that included the arrest of 23 San Diegans with ties to local card rooms, where folks play poker games.
Owners and managers of two San Diego card clubs, Palomar Card Club and Seven Mile Casino, have been charged with conspiracy to launder money (the manager of Palomar has pleaded not guilty). As part of the federal investigation, both clubs were raided last week.
Moran talked to Richard Schuetz, a former state gambling commissioner, who said the raids in San Diego are just part of a much bigger, industry-wide problem.
“I think the evidence shows a systemic failure of the ability of the card room industry to behave in any rational fashion and behave by the rules,” he told Moran.
Folks from the card room industry dispute that claim.
Quick News Hits:
• UCSD’s famous Che Café lost its eviction appeal but the U-T says that doesn’t necessarily mean the counterculture social center and music venue is going anywhere anytime soon.
• If the San Diego-led lawsuit against Monsanto succeeds, there could be a domino effect of similar lawsuits asking other big-time chemical makers to help pay for cleanup and public-health costs. (U-T)
• San Diego City Councilwoman Marti Emerald talked to 10News about her cancer recovery, the delay in an analysis on San Diego police traffic stops, her thoughts on the city’s climate plan and more.
• Clad in bright orange, a large number of moms and other supporters flooded Balboa Park last Saturday to rally against gun violence. (CBS 8)
• All non-professional surfers take note. (San Diego 6)
• This dolphin got lucky. This baby whale didn’t. (NBC San Diego and Fox 5)
• Fattening the 5 freeway is starting sooner than you think. (Seaside Courier)
So. Many. Guns.
Last year, the date of the Crossroads of the West Gun Show in Del Mar happened to coincide with the second anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting (CityBeat). That didn’t stop the event from happening. This year, the gun show came just 10 days after the San Bernardino shootings, and that didn’t give organizers or buyers any real pause either. In fact, NBC reported that gun sales were up sharply from last year.