Former San Jose Police Officer Mark McNamara fires a gun outside La Vic. March 27, 2022
SAN JOSE, Calif. - A college football player shot three years ago by a San Jose police officer as he was wrestling a gun away from people inside a taqueria is poised to be awarded $8 million by the city – in what could be the second-largest police payout in city history.
And the officer in question has since been forced to resign because of racist texts he was found to have sent.
"The number is reflective of the harm K'aun suffered, but also the egregiousness of this particular police officer," K'aun Green's civil rights attorney, Adante Pointer, said on Wednesday. "This is a young man that deserves every penny that San Jose is finally coughing up."
$8M recommended to council
The city attorney wrote a memo to the council, recommending the settlement be paid to Green, now 24, and be approved on Jan. 13 as a way to avoid a higher payment if the case went to trial, the Mercury News first reported.
"This is a negotiated settlement between the parties to avoid the risks inherent in litigation," City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood wrote in a memo to the City Council. "The proposed agreement will conclude the litigation without further cost, expense, or risk of loss to the City or City employees."
A settlement conference was held in mid-November, court records show, and last week, U.S. District Court Judge Nathanael Cousins dismissed Green's excessive force lawsuit against the city of San Jose.
Among largest awards
K'aun Green is headed to the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. Courtesy: UAPB Athletics/Emory Eagles
According to an analysis of Bay Area police payouts, Green's pending monetary award will be the second-highest in San Jose history.
San Jose paid Hung Lam $11.3 million, the city's largest settlement to date, after police shot him in the back in 2014, paralyzing him from the waist down.
In an email, the San Jose police said they don't 'comment on pending litigation, and the San Jose city attorney immediately responded on Wednesday for comment.
La Vic shooting
Photo of Sunday gun fight at La Victoria Taqueria on East San Carlos Street less than a block away from the San Jose State Unviersity campus.
Green's settlement stems from what happened on March 27, 2022, when former San Jose Police Officer Mark McNamara shot him four times on the steps of La Victoria Taqueria, wrongly assuming the 20-year-old college football player was involved in a nearby homicide.
In fact, Green had actually disarmed another gunman inside the restaurant and was exiting with the confiscated weapon in his hand, video at the scene shows.
The police officer's bullets struck Green in his stomach, arm and knee, but none shattered any bones or ripped through any crucial muscles.
The police department later acknowledged the earlier homicide had nothing to do with the brawl at La Vic.
"I think one of the things we'd like the public to understand, when you're in a situation, and you're confronted by police officers who are armed, they're not just armed, they're armed and dangerous," Pointer said. "And sometimes no matter what you do, like Mr. Green, he tried to comply with the officers and still wound up being shot."
Pointer said that people often wonder, ‘What did someone do to get shot by police?’
"The truth is," Pointer said, "sometimes you're doing nothing more than being a good guy. And you can still wind up on the short end of the stick being shot by a police officer, no matter what you do. "
Officer exposed for racist texts
San Jose Police Mark McNamara in video deposition June 21, 2023
In 2023, the police chief at the time exposed McNamara after discovering a string of racist texts on his phone, some of which talked about Green.
McNamara ended up resigning, and the Santa Clara County District Attorney dismissed several cases that McNamara had been involved with.
"Keep in mind, this is an officer who not only was the only person to shoot K'uan, although there were six other police officers standing right near him, but the fact that we uncovered that this officer has a racist streak in him," Pointer said. "In text messages, not only about K'uan, but also threatening to shoot myself and members of my staff for representing him."
Despite that, the city of San Jose has never apologized to Green and had refused – up until now – to settle his federal lawsuit.
In fact, McNamara's attorney, Susan Coleman, and San Jose city attorney, Nora Frimann, both submitted arguments in federal court arguing that McNamara had "qualified immunity" when he shot Green and therefore, the city wasn't responsible.
The attorneys argued that point before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in March 2025.
"I am surprised that it took this long for the good people in city government, in the police department, and in the city attorney's office to know that this was the right thing to do," Pointer said. "They shouldn't have made this young man fight for all these years to first clear his good name and then to have to get some type of compensation for all that he has gone through and suffered. This is a young man who is a hero."
Meanwhile, Green earned a full scholarship to the University of Arkansas at Pine Buff, putting him on the path to being the first to graduate from college in his family.