On Dec. 12, 2010, plaintiffs’ decedent, Douglas Zerby, 35, was on the 5300 block of East Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach, holding a metal pistol grip water hose nozzle, when two officers from the city of Long Beach Police Department showed up. The police department previously received a call about a man with a handgun. As a result, Officers Victor Ortiz and Jeffrey Shurtleff responded to the scene and found Zerby outside, on an apartment stoop, waving around the metal pistol grip water hose nozzle. One of the officers then shot Zerby with a shotgun and the other shot him with a handgun. Zerby died at the scene. An autopsy showed that Zerby had 12 entry wounds, and that his blood-alcohol level was more than five times the limit for driving in California. The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office ultimately found that the officers were justified and had reasonably acted in self-defense. The decedent’s parents, Mark Zerby and Pamela Amici, and the decedent’s son, River Sentell, sued Ortiz and Shurtleff; the Chief of Police, Jim McDonnell; and their employers, the city of Long Beach and the Long Beach Police Department. The decedent’s family alleged that Ortiz and Shurtleff used battery and excessive force in violation of the decedent’s Fourth Amendment Rights. They also alleged that McDonnell, the city and the police department were negligent in the hiring and training of the officers. Plaintiffs’ counsel contended that Ortiz and Shurtleff fired six times with a handgun and two times with a shotgun, without identifying themselves to the decedent, without ordering him to drop his weapon, and without any verbal warning to make him aware that they were there. Counsel also contended that the incident was one of contagious fire, where one officer fired by mistake, thereby prompting the other officer to shoot, believing he was under fire. Thus, plaintiffs’ counsel argued that the officers acted with malice and/or the reckless disregard for life when they opened fire. Defense counsel contended that Ortiz and Shurtleff were in the process of setting up a containment perimeter, when Douglas Zerby suddenly pointed a pistol grip water nozzle directly at Ortiz. Counsel further contended that the officers fired because they were standing unprotected and believed that the decedent was about to shoot them with what they wrongly believed was a real handgun. Thus, defense counsel denied that Ortiz and Shurtleff acted negligently or imprudently, and claimed that decedent was intoxicated and contributed to his own death., Police fired on Douglas Zerby six times with a handgun and two times with a shotgun. As a result, Zerby died at the scene from 12 gunshot wounds. He was 35. Zerby was survived by his parents and his 10-year-old son, River. Thus, Zerby’s family sought recovery of wrongful death damages.