The killing of Kuanchung Kao occurred on April 29, 1997, in Rohnert Park, California. Kao was waving a wooden stick in the street in front of his driveway, prompting multiple 911 calls placed by Kao's neighbors. He was then fatally shot by public safety officer Jack Shields.
Kao's family filed a lawsuit against Rohnert Park which was settled for $1 million.
Background
Kuanchung Kao ( – ; ) was a Taiwan-born microbiologist working as a quality control engineer. He was married to Ayling Wu, a registered nurse, and they had three children together.
Officer Mike Lynch was the first police respondent on the scene. Officer Jack Shields was the second respondent, a 25-year veteran Rohnert Park public safety officer (the combined police and fire departments) at the time of the shooting in 1997. He had been promoted to police lieutenant soon after joining the force, and was later promoted to fire commander after serving more than twenty years as a police lieutenant. He was demoted to patrol officer after a year as fire commander after he was found guilty of falsifying time cards for other employees.
Shooting
On the night of April 28, 1997, Kao was drinking at the Cotati Yacht Club in celebration of a new job. While at the bar, he was involved in two scuffles with at least one other bar patron. In the first, he corrected a patron by stating he was Chinese, not Japanese, to which the other patron responded by saying "You all look alike to me." The bartender, who was familiar with Kao, separated them by seating them at opposite ends of the bar.
The same patron later approached Kao and whispered some inflammatory words, instigating an altercation to which police were called. Kao was sent home in a taxicab by the bartender, who said the bar fight was inconsistent with Kao's usual behavior.
Upon arriving home, Kao stayed outside, crying "Neighbors, please help me!" Postmortem tests showed Kao's blood alcohol level was 0.23%. Neighbors called 911 to report a drunken disturbance at 2:11a.m. Kao retrieved a wooden stick comparable to a closet rod from a motorhome parked in his driveway at around this time.
Four minutes later police officer Lynch arrived and stopped his patrol vehicle close to Kao in what witnesses felt was an attempt to scare him, but Kao hit the patrol car with the stick. Lynch backed the car away and remained in the car waiting for backup. Almost simultaneously, officer Shields arrived, training a spotlight on Kao and exiting his vehicle, despite Lynch radioing Shields to remain in his car. Shields later testified that he left the car to find Kao's wife Ayling Wu.
Lynch and Shields were in uniform and arrived in marked patrol cars with their sirens on but an eyewitness later stated neither of them identified themselves as police officers. When the officers arrived, Kao's wife Ayling Wu was outside trying to calm Kao and grab the stick. Shields commanded Wu to step away from Kao. She believed the officer would grab the stick but once she had retreated, Shields shot Kao once in the chest. Shields later testified that Kao charged him with the stick raised over his head in a striking posture, closing to within . Four separate eyewitnesses contradicted Shields' testimony, saying that Kao was never closer to Shields than . Kao was then handcuffed behind his back and left face down on his driveway to await paramedics. Ayling Wu, a trained medical professional, said she could see her husband breathing and tried to administer aid but was physically restrained by the officers and threatened with arrest. By the time paramedics arrived some ten minutes later Kao was dead. His body remained in the driveway until noon, and his 5-year-old daughter witnessed part of the disturbance.
Shields later testified that he feared for his life as Kao was waving the stick in "a threatening martial arts fashion." Kao never studied martial arts. A warrant executed the next day had police comb through Kao's house for evidence of martial arts training or paraphernalia. None was found.
Legal actions
Sonoma County District Attorney
The Sonoma County Sheriff's Department conducted an investigation of the shooting and filed a 600-page report with the Sonoma County District Attorney's office in May 1997. On June 19, 1997, Sonoma County District Attorney Michael Mullins decided not to file criminal charges against Officer Jack Shields, concluding that Officer Shields had acted in self-defense. The California Attorney General's office investigated whether the decision not to prosecute was an abuse of discretion, concluding in a March 24, 1998 letter from Dan Lungren that deadly force was justified.