K’aun Green is finally getting the justice and the bag he deserves. The 24-year-old former college football standout is set to receive a massive $8 million settlement from the city of San Jose after a 2022 police shooting that nearly cost him his life.
According to KTVU, the payout, which is one of the biggest in the city’s history, comes after K’aun was shot multiple times by a police officer while he was actually trying to be the hero in a chaotic situation.
On January 13, 2026, the San Jose City Council is expected to officially approve the deal to settle a federal excessive-force lawsuit that has been pending for years. The nightmare started back in March 2022 at La Victoria Taqueria, a popular late-night spot near the San Jose State University campus. A fight broke out inside the restaurant, and K’aun, who was then a defensive lineman for City College of San Francisco, jumped in to save lives.
He managed to wrestle a gun away from another person involved in the brawl and was backing out of the restaurant with the weapon held away from him when San Jose Police Officer Mark McNamara arrived.
Within seconds of pulling up, McNamara opened fire on K’aun, hitting him in the stomach, arm, and knee. While the city initially tried to claim K’aun was a suspect in a nearby homicide, video footage quickly shut that down, proving he was just a bystander doing the right thing.
As if being shot wasn’t enough, the case took a disgusting turn in 2023 when internal investigators found racist text messages on McNamara’s phone.
The former officer, who resigned once the heat got too high, reportedly sent texts stating “I hate Black people” and used racial slurs to describe K’aun and his legal team. McNamara even joked about the shooting, texting a friend that K’aun “should be bowing down to me” because the lawsuit would make him rich.
These vile messages prompted the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office to toss out several other criminal cases involving McNamara, as his blatant bias tainted his entire record as a cop.
K’aun’s attorney, Adante Pointer, made it clear that while $8 million is a lot of money, it reflects the trauma K’aun had to endure.
“The number is reflective of the harm K’aun suffered, but also the egregiousness of this particular police officer,” Pointer said. “Sometimes people ask, ‘What did someone do to get shot by police?’ The truth is, sometimes you’re doing nothing more than being a good guy.”
Even though the city is paying out millions to avoid a trial, they still haven’t offered K’aun a formal apology for the life-altering incident. Despite the physical and mental toll, K’aun hasn’t let this tragedy stop his hustle. He kept his head up and earned a full scholarship to play football at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, a prestigious HBCU.
If the city council approves the $8 million on schedule, it will officially become the second-largest police settlement in San Jose history, trailing only an $11.3 million award from 2014.
