The San Diego District Attorney has charged former San Diego County Sheriff’s Deputy Aaron Russell with second-degree murder just over two months after Russell allegedly shot and killed a mentally ill man who had escaped police custody. The San Diego Police Department reported in May that Russell shot and killed an unarmed Nicholas Bils, who is a paranoid schizophrenic, as he ran away from California State Park rangers who had been taking him to jail. Bils’ mother said her son was afraid of law enforcement officers. Russell resigned from the sheriff’s department in May, five days after the fatal shooting.
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