San Diego County prosecutors will not criminally charge the San Diego police officer who fatally shot a 16-year-old as the boy fled a shooting near a downtown train depot early last year, the District Attorney’s Office said Friday.
The decision not to charge Officer Daniel Gold II was detailed in a 14-page letter that District Attorney Summer Stephan sent to Sheriff Kelly Martinez and San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl on Wednesday but only made public Friday afternoon.
It comes less than a year after San Diego agreed in December to settle with Konoa Wilson’s parents for $30 million just six months after they filed a lawsuit alleging that Gold shot their son “instantly, without any warning.”
Stephan concluded the evidence did not meet the standard necessary to convict in a criminal trial, after reviewing reports, videos and other materials compiled by the sheriff’s Homicide Division.
“Our extensive review of the totality of the facts and circumstances surrounding this incident leads us to the conclusion that criminal charges against Gold could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” she wrote.
The district attorney decided that Gold “believed he was facing a life-threatening situation,” based in part on seeing Wilson running with his hand “at his right side near his waist area” just before he shot him.
“We are not able to make a determination that Gold’s actions were justified, rather we have determined the evidence does not demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that Gold’s belief was unreasonable,” she wrote. “As a result, Gold bears no state criminal liability for his actions.”
An attorney for Wilson’s family criticized the decision in an emailed statement.
“The criminal justice system is often biased and corrupt, especially when it comes to holding its own people accountable. Thankfully, we have our civil justice system to turn to when our criminal justice system fails us,” lawyer Nicholas Rowley said.
“The fact that the city of San Diego agreed to the largest wrongful death by police payout in world history for killing Konoa answers the question for San Diegans and anybody in America who questions whether the killing of Konoa was criminal. The answer is that it absolutely was,” he wrote.
According to investigators, on Jan. 28, 2025, Wilson was shot and killed shortly after San Diego police responded to an unrelated call by a man who said he had been assaulted by security officers aboard an Amtrak train.
Gold and his police partner arrived separately at the nearby America Plaza trolley station; Gold’s partner walked to the platform at the Santa Fe Depot to speak with an Amtrak police officer, and Gold parked outside the depot, prosecutors said.
As Gold’s partner spoke with the Amtrak officer on the platform, the two heard gunshots, then saw a person in a hoodie running from the train platform toward a corridor leading to Kettner, both officers later told investigators.
“I’ve got shots fired. Again, shots fired,” Gold’s partner broadcast on his police radio.
The person in the hoodie, later identified as Wilson, ran away from the gunfire, out of the corridor to Kettner Boulevard, and nearly collided with Gold, the District Attorney’s Office said. Gold then opened fire.
Gold later told investigators he believed based on the radio call that his partner had been shot, and that he didn’t perceive the teen as a victim because he didn’t have his hands up as he ran out of the corridor.
Video from train depot surveillance cameras, smart streetlight cameras and officers’ body-worn cameras show the moments just before, during and after the shooting and was analyzed by investigators.
Surveillance footage from just before the shooting shows Wilson arriving at the train platform and trying to speak with two people, before one of them pulled out a gun and fired two shots at him.
“While running east through the corridor, (Wilson) has his right hand at his side and it appears he is not holding anything. (Wilson) leaves the camera frame, and then within seconds, the shooting incident involving Gold occurs just outside of the camera’s view,” the district attorney’s letter says.
Video also showed the shooting and moments afterward — including the shooter and his companion fleeing along the train platform, and the officers providing medical aid to Wilson and finding a gun in his possession. Investigators and Gold said the gun was in a zipped-shut pocket of a pair of shorts Wilson had on under his pants.
In the civil lawsuit over the shooting, an attorney for the boy’s family said the teen had a gun because he was being targeted by local gangs, and pointed out that he was not accused of brandishing it.
The District Attorney’s Office also cited the opinions of two experts it consulted on police practices.
A defensive-tactics instructor opined that an officer who hears a radio call of “shots fired” would likely believe another officer was firing or being fired on and respond urgently.
And a use-of-force expert “could not definitively say Gold’s use of force was objectively unreasonable,” and said it did not “appear feasible for Gold to give commands or a warning” to Wilson before fatally shooting him.
“The expert concluded that although Gold’s response and use of force did not follow the traditional training protocol or have the desired outcome, his actions may not be viewed as unreasonable by peers faced with the same set of circumstances,” Stephan wrote in her letter to Martinez and Wahl.
“Here, Gold inaccurately, but not unreasonably, believed his partner was involved in a shooting and that (Wilson) was the suspect,” she continued. “When Gold encountered (Wilson) with his hand at his waist, Gold believed he was facing a life-threatening situation.”
The decision by Stephan not to pursue criminal charges against Gold comes nine months after the city of San Diego reached a settlement with the Wilson family, one of the largest ever paid in a police-shooting case, surpassing the $27 million Minneapolis paid to George Floyd’s family in 2021.
The settlement came after an attorney for the boy’s family had warned the city that if the case went to trial, a verdict could exceed $100 million.