After the $5.8 Million LAPD Settlement, No Criminal Case: California’s Justice Department Said on October 13, 2026 It Will Not Charge the Officer Who Shot a Man Holding a Plastic Fork

The LAPD settlement in the Jason Maccani case is finished business on the money side, and as of October 19, 2026 the criminal side is closed too. On October 13, 2026, the California Department of Justice released its report on the February 3, 2024 shooting and announced: “DOJ concluded that criminal charges were not appropriate in this case.” Its legal finding is that the evidence does not show beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer acted without the intent to defend himself and others from what he reasonably believed to be imminent death or serious bodily injury. “As such, no further action will be taken in this case.” DOJ added that it has “no policy recommendations in this case.”

The decision does not touch the civil payment. The Ventura County Star reported on September 10, 2026 that “the city of Los Angeles recently paid the family $5.8 million to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit ahead of trial, according to the Maccani’s attorney.” DOJ’s own release acknowledges that settlement and draws the line explicitly: its review under AB 1506 “is limited to whether the officers’ conduct was a crime that could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.” A civil case only needs the lower civil standard of proof, which is why a city can pay millions over a shooting the state will not prosecute. A settlement is also not an admission; the city has not publicly explained its decision to settle, and the City Attorney’s Office did not answer the Star’s questions.

The $5.8 million goes to the three people who sued: Maccani’s wife and his parents, listed on the federal docket as the plaintiffs in Rasey-Smith v. City of Los Angeles. They accused the department of “excessive force, battery, negligence and civil rights violations,” the Star reported. Before suing, the family filed a damages claim with the city; Hoodline, citing MyNewsLA, reported that claim sought $20 million. The final figure was less than a third of that.

This is an individual lawsuit, not a class action. There is no settlement administrator, no claim form, no deadline and no payment for anyone else who had contact with the LAPD. If you have your own claim against the City of Los Angeles over police conduct, this case does not help you file it — your route is your own government claim with the city and, if it is denied, your own lawsuit, usually with a civil rights attorney. The figure is also not a benchmark for other cases: each LAPD settlement is negotiated one case at a time.

One record detail: as of October 19, 2026, the copy of the docket on CourtListener shows no termination date and its latest entry is a notice of appearance filed July 23, 2026 (Dkt. 106). We have not seen a dismissal order or a City Council file for the settlement; that is a gap in the public record we checked, not evidence that anything is still open.

The report is DOJ’s account, built from body-worn camera footage, surveillance video and interviews. At 2:14 PM that day, LAPD received a 911 call about a man armed with a stick threatening employees in a downtown building. According to DOJ’s summary, the caller “later clarified he was unarmed but guarding the door,” and on arrival officers confirmed Maccani had not struck anyone and that “the only objects inside were scissors and shoes.” He first complied, walking backward with his hands up, then turned and advanced. Officers fired “multiple less-lethal beanbag and 40 mm rounds.” DOJ says he grabbed an officer and her beanbag shotgun, pushed her against a wall and held a white object to her neck; another officer then fired one shot.

The object was a plastic fork. The report says Maccani’s fist “concealed the prong end of the fork, leaving only the handle protruding,” that the shooting happened inside a garment factory “where sharp implements were, and are commonly, present,” and that other officers described the object as “a screwdriver or sharp object.” On that basis DOJ concluded it was reasonable for the officer to misperceive it as a bladed weapon. The autopsy, completed on February 7, 2024, found a gunshot wound to the chest, and “no drugs were detected.” Maccani was 36.

The family’s account, through their attorney’s August 21 news release as reported by the Star, is different: footage shows he “never assaulted the female officer or got close to taking her weapon,” and the officer who fired had been with the department for “roughly six months” and is no longer with it. The civil case ended in a settlement, so no court ever ruled on which account is right.

In this case, roughly two and a half years from shooting to payment. The timeline on the record: shooting on February 3, 2024; federal complaint filed April 19, 2024; the plaintiffs’ trial witness list filed February 20, 2026 (Dkt. 74); settlement announced in the attorney’s August 21 release; payment reported by September 10, 2026. By our count that is about 28 months from complaint to announced settlement. The separate state criminal review took until October 13, 2026 — longer than the civil case.

Other police cases move faster or far slower, depending on whether they settle, go to trial or are appealed, so treat this as one data point, not a rule.

Not if it asks you to register, pay a fee or confirm bank details for an LAPD settlement payment. Nothing in this case pays the public: the money went to the named plaintiffs through their own lawyers. The DOJ report and press release are posted on the Attorney General’s site, oag.ca.gov, and neither asks anyone for information or money. A message claiming you qualify for a share of the Maccani settlement, or of LAPD settlements in general, is not from the city or the court.

Readers who search for LAPD settlements often ask about record payouts. This page is about one Los Angeles case and does not track all-time records. For scale within police cases only: in the same week as the DOJ decision, Chicago’s City Council unanimously approved a package of nearly $261 million for 17 men wrongfully convicted of murder in cases dating back to 1987, which their lawyers called the largest police misconduct settlement in U.S. history, ABC7 Chicago reported on October 15, 2026. For Los Angeles-wide totals, see our October 13 analysis of the city’s police payouts linked below.

For the Maccani family, the October 13 decision ends what the money could not provide. Their mother told the Star in September: “There is no justice because there’s no accountability,” saying she wanted the officer charged and tried, and that she hopes to change the penal code so that officers found to have acted outside policy in a shooting are criminally charged. DOJ’s report, which proposes no policy changes, leaves that push where it was.