Knife retailer proprietor sues Dublin police for alleged unlawful searches, seizing of 300-plus weapons

DUBLIN — A former Dublin knife retailer proprietor claims police harassed him after authorities raided his store and seized $2 million in firearms and different weapons, a federal lawsuit filed this week says.

Deepak Chopra alleges police illegally searched and seized stock and weapons from his earlier enterprise, Dublin Knives, in 2023. The lawsuit alleges authorities took 300 weapons and different weapons, comparable to knives and brass knuckles from his Dublin Boulevard store “without a warrant and without probable cause”

Chopra claims he owned all of the weapons legally and police “used threats, intimidation and coercion,” in line with the lawsuit, which names Dublin Police Companies, Chief Victor Fox and deputies William Cowens and Christopher Shepard as defendants.

Based on the lawsuit, Cowens and Shepard entered Dublin Knives on April 13, 2023 whereas responding to a name of a theft, didn’t current a warrant and started looking out Chopra’s retailer and seizing weapons, change blades and different stock.

Months later, round Aug. 11, 2023, Shepard did receive a warrant to look Chopra’s residence and enterprise, the lawsuit says. The police seized extra stock however “misrepresented” Chopra’s “legal business practices as criminal activity,” data present.

Chopra’s lawsuit additionally alleges his autistic son suffered misery and accidents when the kid was detained for greater than 5 hours throughout the alleged illegal search of Chopra’s residence. The lawsuit says the kid’s detainment brought on his son to “bang his head on the ground in distress,” requiring emergency medical consideration. He additionally alleges his spouse, Deepika Chopra, “suffered severe emotional distress.”

Prosecutors charged on Chopra in April 2024 with 11 crimes, together with fees comparable to possession of an assault weapon, possession of a brief barreled rifle/shotgun, manufacturing firearms with out a serial quantity and furnishing a switchblade.

“There was no drugs, there was no cocaine, there was not methamphetamine, there was nothing,” Chopra stated in an interview. “Everything was legally possessed and owned. They wasted millions of dollars on us.”

The courtroom issued an order on Feb. 10, 2025 requiring authorities to return the seized weapons and stock.

The lawsuit was filed after Chopra’s declare towards the town — which contracts with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Workplace for policing — was denied in February 2024.

The Alameda County District Lawyer’s Workplace on Tuesday afternoon stated a a pretrial listening to is scheduled for a prison case towards Chopra on Might 8 on the East County Corridor of Justice in Dublin.

Chopra, who’s suing for hundreds of thousands in damages for “lost inventory and economic harm,” has since relocated his enterprise to San Ramon.

“They’ve destroyed our lives,” he stated Tuesday.