A federal judge has ruled that San Francisco police officer Chris Samayoa will face a trial by jury for a civil case brought against him for shooting and killing a man fleeing from a stolen minivan in 2017.

On December 1, 2017, Samayoa, at the time a rookie San Francisco police officer, was riding in the passenger seat of a training officer Eric Talusan’s squad car when Samayoa shot and killed Keita O’Neil. Talusan and Samayoa were engaged in pursuit of a stolen California state lottery minivan in the Bayview District when O’Neil jumped out of a stolen minivan and tried to run away in Samayoa’s direction. However, O’Neil was blocked in by another officer’s squad car and, after a brief chase, Samayoa fired a single shot through his squad car’s windshield, killing O’Neil.

In the lawsuit brought on O’Neil’s behalf by his mother, Judy O’Neil, the city of San Fransisco argued that Samayoa is entitled to qualified immunity. Qualified immunity is a doctrine that protects government officials performing discretionary functions from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have know. The city argued that Samayoa is entitled to qualified immunity because he reasonably suspected that O’Neil was reaching for a weapon when putting his hands near his waistband.

In the opinion issued Monday, US Magistrate Judge Joseph Spero found that a jury is the best suited to determine whether Samayoa acted reasonably because “the record was unclear as to what O’Neil did with his hands as he ran towards Samayoa.” “A jury could conclude that O’Neil did not ‘reach’ for his waistband, that his hands were in the vicinity of his waist only as part of a natural running motion, and that any reasonable officer in Samayoa’s position would have recognized that O’Neil was merely trying to run away,” Magistrate Spero said in the opinion.

This lawsuit comes in addition to a pending criminal prosecution of Samayoa.