Former San Diego County Sheriff’s Deputy Aaron Richard Russell is now a convicted former law enforcement officer in the killing of Nicholas Bils, a 36-year-old unarmed man who was shot while running away outside the San Diego Central Jail on May 1, 2020.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California, Russell was sentenced in federal court on May 29, 2026, to 12 years in prison after a federal jury convicted him of deprivation of rights under color of law and using and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
The case centered on a brutal fact pattern: Bils had escaped from a California State Parks patrol vehicle while being transported to the downtown jail and ran away. Prosecutors said Russell fired five shots at him. Four rounds hit Bils, including one in the back. The Justice Department said the jury found that Russell violated Bils’ civil rights by fatally shooting him as he ran away.
This was not just a split-second mistake that disappeared into the usual fog of official language. According to federal prosecutors, no other officer at the scene even drew a firearm when Bils ran. Multiple officers testified that Bils was not a threat to anyone. The Justice Department also said the shooting was captured on surveillance cameras along Front Street, with body-worn camera footage from officers who responded afterward.
Russell had already faced state prosecution. In January 2022, he pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in connection with Bils’ death, as reported by Courthouse News Service. He was later sentenced in state court to one year in jail and three years of probation, according to ABC 10News San Diego.
The federal case changed the consequences dramatically. NBC 7 San Diego reported that a federal jury found Russell guilty on March 3, 2026, after a prior federal trial ended with a deadlocked jury. The Justice Department later announced the 12-year federal sentence.
The Associated Press reported that Bils had been arrested at Old Town State Park after an encounter with rangers, escaped from a State Parks patrol car while being transported, and ran. AP also reported that Russell resigned shortly after the shooting and that San Diego County agreed in 2022 to pay Bils’ family $8.1 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit.
There are allegations, charges, pleas, convictions, and civil settlements in this story, and they should not be blurred together. The state murder charge did not result in a murder conviction; Russell pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter. The later federal case did result in convictions for violating Bils’ civil rights and for using and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence. The civil lawsuit was resolved through a settlement, not a trial verdict.
What remains is still damning: an unarmed man ran away, and a sworn deputy shot him from behind. Courts, prosecutors, and jurors ultimately treated that not as justified policing, but as criminal conduct under color of law.
