High school football star mistaken for gunman in San Jose taco shop brawl

Police shoot 'hero' who disarmed gunman during fight at a California restaurant: 20-year-old remains in hospital with gunshot wounds to the stomach, leg and arm

• Surveillance video captures brawl with multiple people 'wrestling' over gun
• 'The police yelled "drop the gun,' and without giving my client a second to understand it was the police,' K'aun Green's attorney says
• Police later arrest true gunman, Brian Carter, after detaining Green in handcuffs in hospital bed.
• Police recognize gun did not belong to Green but yet to issue apology or make formal statement

A 20-year-old man was shot by police early Sunday while wrestling a weapon out of a gunman's hands, his lawyer says.

'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,' K'aun Green's attorney, Adante Pointer, told NBC Bay Area.

Pointer said that Green, a former high school football star who is now a Contra Costa College linebacker, was 'minding his own business' eating at the La Victoria Taqueria restaurant in San Jose with a friend when separate group, unknown to him, began harassing him.

'My client was the victim here, he was attacked and punched and thus started defending himself.' Pointer said.

'During that, two other people got involved who were friends with the original attacker; so he was dealing with three people - one of which had a gun - and he bravely and courageously disarmed the gunman and then fended him off as they continued to physically attack him.'

Of the group, he emphasized that they were strangers to Green.

'He didn't know these guys, he didn't strike up a conversation with them; they just came and picked a fight and punched him.'

Soon, a brawl broke out between the two groups, SFGate reports. Green then took the gun away from one member of the group and was holding it when police arrived, at which time, they shot him.

'They assumed, and they assumed incorrectly, that he was the bad guy and instantly started shooting,' Pointer said.

He said there were many other more thoughtful approaches the police could have taken.

'They had a lot of different tactical options available to them than what they chose, which was just to storm into a tight space where you don't know who's who, what's what, how many weapons there are or anything.' Pointer said.

'They could have used the loudspeaker and said 'everyone out, hands up, we've surrounded the place.'

He said Green suffered gunshot wounds in the abdomen, leg and arm during the altercation.

Surveillance video captures the fight in which the gun changed possession multiple times.
Heroic man shot by police after disarming gunman in taqueria brawl







The assailants attacked Green at the La Victoria Taqueria in San Jose, California Sunday, after Green says they started 'harassing' him

Green's attackers pin his group in a corner and deliver a savage beatdown

A security guard tries to maintain order over the situation, as the fight over the gun continues

San Jose Police arrive on the scene where they shoot Green after mistakenly thinking him to be the gunman

Screen grabs from police footage captures the 'chaotic' situation as it unfolds

Green had been 'minding his own business' when another group of patrons started harassing him and brandished a gun. Green then struggled to 'wrestle' the gun from their grip and was seen by police leaving the restaurant with the weapon in his left hand

In the video, about four seconds pass between when Green opens the door and the officer fires.

Police say that Green refused to drop the weapon, which San Jose police chief Anthony Mata called a 'ghost gun,' after being ordered to by multiple officers to do so

According to Brady United, a gun control advocacy group, ghost guns are 'unserialized and untraceable firearms that can be bought online and assembled at home.'

They say that they are often exploited by prohibited purchasers, domestic abusers and gun traffickers without background checks.

But Pointer praised Green's actions for trying to prevent what could have been a deadly situation.


'He is a hero and should be treated as such!' Pointer tweeted on Monday. 'He disarmed a man that was threatening folks. He didn't deserve to be shot.'

Mata said the shooting happened about one block from an unrelated homicide scene that also involved a gun.

He said that his team was informed by patrons of the restaurant that a fight with a gun was happening inside the restaurant and officers simply reacted how they are trained to in situations like these.

Green was forced, by police, to lay handcuffed to a hospital bed while the investigation was ongoing and he was 'cleared as a suspect'

Green and his family celebrate his graduation from McClymonds High School

As quarterback at McClymonds High School, he was a three-time state football champion. He went on to play linebacker at Contra Costa College

'Police believe an active shooter scenario [was] unfolding or about to unfold,' Mata said. 'The officer knew that less than a block away from the homicide, a man with a gun inside a crowded restaurant engaged in a fight, the officer knew the individual holding the gun did not drop it when commands were clearly given to him.

'The officer did not know who brought the gun to the restaurant.'

Soon after the incident, investigators later discovered that the gun belonged to Brian Carter, who was arrested on suspicion of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

At the same time, the officer, a four-year veteran of the department, who fired the shot was placed on administrative leave while an investigation is ongoing.

But it didn't come until after Green was handcuffed to a hospital bed and denied access to his family until he was 'cleared as a suspect.'

Police later identified that the weapon belonged to Brian Carter, 30 (pictured)

'We expect him to be transferred and will be spending a considerable amount of time in a rehabilitation facility going through physical therapy and all the different things that he's going to unfortunately have to go through in order to try to have a chance at regaining the life he once had,' Pointer said.

Through Pointer, Green said he was annoyed that the police didn't admit their mistake from the beginning.

'To then hear and watch the police press conference wherein they didn't just admit they shot the wrong guy was very frustrating to him,' Pointer said.

While they have acknowledged that the gun did not belong to Green, they have yet to issue an apology.

Green was a three-time state football champion at McClymonds High School in Oakland, serving as their quarterback. During his collegiate career, he earned first-team all PAC-7 conference honors during the 2021 season. He dreams of one day going pro.