SAN DIEGO — A former San Diego sheriff’s deputy who already pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter for the 2020 fatal shooting of an unarmed suspect has been indicted on two federal charges that could bring a life sentence, federal prosecutors said.

A federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment Friday charging Aaron Russell with depriving Nicholas Bils of his right to be free from officers using excessive force and with discharging a firearm in a violent crime, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.

Bils, 36, was arrested in May 2020 at Old Town State Park in San Diego where he had been pitching balls to his off-leash dog. He brandished a golf club at a ranger before running away and was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and resisting arrest.

Bils was in a State Parks patrol car heading to the downtown jail when he managed to slip out of his handcuffs, reached out a window to open the car door, then jumped out and ran.

Aaron Russell, a jail deputy with 18 months on the force, chased Bils and shot him four times, including once in the back. Surveillance video captured the shooting.

Russell was charged with murder, but pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, and was sentenced to a year in jail and three years of probation. If convicted of the federal charges, he faces a maximum penalty of life in prison, the Justice Department said.

Contact information for Russell could not be found Sunday. He resigned from the sheriff’s department shortly after the shooting.

Bils’ mother, Kathleen Bils, told NBC 7 her son was a paranoid schizophrenic who was afraid of law enforcement, which may have played a role in his flight.

The shooting led to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Bils’ relatives, which was settled in 2022 with San Diego County agreeing to pay the family $8.1 million.

Get ready to kick off Barbie Summer at the Pier at the Junior Seau Pier Amphitheater for a fabulous screening of “Barbie.”

Strike a pose at the Barbie box photo op and even stand a chance to win a Barbie RC car or playset! Barbies, Kens, and Allans don your best pink outfits and make this a night to remember!

The event is FREE and open to everyone, making it an unmissable part of your Barbie Summer at the Pier. English subtitles will be on, ensuring everyone can enjoy the movie. Don’t forget to bring your own chairs if you want to sit up close to the screen for the ultimate Barbie experience.

See you there!

Rain or shine, we’ve got you covered—movies will be rescheduled in case of rain. So mark your calendars, gather your friends, and get ready for an unforgettable Barbie Summer at the Pier.

Expect a fun-filled evening that’s perfect for the whole family. Click here for more info.

See you there, San Diego!

San Diego is not only a popular tourist destination but has become a favorite spot for migrants to illegally slip across the US-Mexico border, new data shows.

An astounding 8,016 migrants were apprehended in the second week of May alone — that’s after a jaw-dropping 10,023 were caught two weeks prior, according to figures shared by the region’s Border Patrol.

The numbers show no signs of slowing down, with more than 35,490 arrests made in April, making it the busiest of the Border Patrol’s nine sectors along the southern border for the second month in a row — and for the first time since the 1990s.

The sudden surge could be blamed on the other states suffering from migrant fatigue, like Texas, cracking down on their borders, forcing aliens and their smugglers to seek out easier paths to the US.

“Mexican authorities have put a lot of pressure on key migration routes to Texas, and that may be forcing people to try other routes further west,” Cris Ramón, senior advisor on immigration for the Latino civil rights organization UnidosUS, told the Los Angeles Times.

”Migration is a dynamic phenomenon, and people are going to adjust and find the circumstances where they have the best chance to reach the United States.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has led an intense anti-migrant campaign that involves stationing National Guard Troops along the border and bussing illegal aliens who succeed in entering to more progressive municipalities, like New York City.

California — a Sanctuary State — has proven more forgiving, especially in San Diego, which released a “minimum” of 125,000 migrants from detention onto the city streets “without proper vetting” in the six months since September 2023, officials told The Post this month.

The surge doesn’t reflect a change in overall arrests along the border, but just a switch in where they are entering.

San Diego saw a 69% rise in migrant arrests between Oct. 1 and March 31 while Texas sectors saw a 29% drop, the Times reported.

A senior Customs and Border Protection official who spoke on condition of anonymity told the paper that the government would be dispatching additional agents to the San Diego border to quell the recent swells, which Mexican authorities will be mirroring on their side of the border.

“Just like we’ve done in the past, when the cartels shift, we adjust our operations,” the official said.

The effort might only have a bandaid effect, they warned, suggesting that it would only be a matter of time before new routes emerged elsewhere.

“The cartels,” the official said, “are constantly trying to find ways to exploit and circumvent enforcement.”