A former high school football champion disarmed a gunman wreaking havoc inside a California restaurant before he was shot four times by responding officers, according to his attorney.
K’aun Green, an aspiring professional athlete, remained hospitalized on Friday after undergoing emergency surgery for gunshot wounds to his arm, abdomen and leg.
The 20-year-old football player was struck by gunfire on Sunday unleashed by San Jose police responding to La Victoria Taqueria, NBC Bay Area reported. He was eating with a group of friends when they were approached by an irate stranger, who the left the San Jose eatery, but later returned with two more people, one of who was armed, according to Green’s lawyer, Adante Pointer.
He said Green had been “minding his own business” when tensions gave way to violence inside the taqueria. Surveillance video released by authorities this week revealed a chaotic scene with multiple people involved, some of them wrestling with each other on the ground. San Jose Police Chief Anthony Mata during a press conference on Tuesday said that the gun “changed possession more than once.”
As the space cleared out, Green can be seen in surveillance video wrestling the firearm away from one of the assailants.
“The video shows he was punched first, then the gun was drawn,” Pointer told KTVU. “He defended himself then disarmed the guy who was threatening to shoot him and then the other people in the restaurant.”
The incident unfolded about a block away from where officers were investigating a homicide, which they have since said was unrelated. Patrons fleeing from La Victoria told the nearby officers a man with a weapon had entered the eatery, drawing their response.
Mata said Green did not respond to repeated requests to drop the weapon as he backed out of the restaurant — so law enforcement officers opened fire. Authorities have since confirmed Green did not bring the weapon into the taqueria, but they have yet to apologize for shooting the college athlete.
The person who originally brandished the weapon, Brian Carter, was arrested on suspicion of being a felon in possession of a firearm, police said.
“The police yelled ‘drop the gun,’ and without giving my client a second to understand it was the police, or turn around and see what was going on, or even to drop the gun, he was shot multiple times,” Pointer said, adding that his client should be hailed as “hero” for preventing what could have been a more deadly shooting.
A still photo from police body camera video released by authorities shows Green holding the weapon in his left hand. According to video, approximately four seconds pass between the time Green exits the restaurant and when he was shot.
In wake of the shooting, Pointer said Green was treated like a suspect, strapped to his hospital bed and denied access to his family. He was not cleared until days later.
Green as a freshman at Contra Costa University played defensive lineman and linebacker on the Comets football team. He was also a three-time state football champion at McClymonds High School in Oakland.
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