DUBLIN — A former Dublin knife store owner claims police harassed him after authorities raided his shop and seized $2 million in firearms and other weapons, a federal lawsuit filed this week says.
Deepak Chopra alleges police illegally searched and seized inventory and weapons from his previous business, Dublin Knives, in 2023. The lawsuit alleges authorities took 300 guns and other weapons, such as knives and brass knuckles from his Dublin Boulevard shop “without a warrant and without probable cause”
Chopra claims he owned all the weapons legally and police “used threats, intimidation and coercion,” according to the lawsuit, which names Dublin Police Services, Chief Victor Fox and deputies William Cowens and Christopher Shepard as defendants.
According to the lawsuit, Cowens and Shepard entered Dublin Knives on April 13, 2023 while responding to a call of a robbery, did not present a warrant and began searching Chopra’s store and seizing guns, switch blades and other inventory.
Months later, around Aug. 11, 2023, Shepard did obtain a warrant to search Chopra’s home and business, the lawsuit says. The police seized more inventory but “misrepresented” Chopra’s “legal business practices as criminal activity,” records show.
Chopra’s lawsuit also alleges his autistic son suffered distress and injuries when the child was detained for more than five hours during the alleged unlawful search of Chopra’s home. The lawsuit says the child’s detainment caused his son to “bang his head on the ground in distress,” requiring emergency medical attention. He also alleges his wife, Deepika Chopra, “suffered severe emotional distress.”
Prosecutors charged on Chopra in April 2024 with 11 crimes, including charges such as possession of an assault weapon, possession of a short barreled rifle/shotgun, manufacturing firearms without a serial number and furnishing a switchblade.
“There was no drugs, there was no cocaine, there was not methamphetamine, there was nothing,” Chopra said in an interview. “Everything was legally possessed and owned. They wasted millions of dollars on us.”
The court issued an order on Feb. 10, 2025 requiring authorities to return the seized weapons and inventory.
The lawsuit was filed after Chopra’s claim against the city — which contracts with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office for policing — was denied in February 2024.
The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office on Tuesday afternoon said a a pretrial hearing is scheduled for a criminal case against Chopra on May 8 at the East County Hall of Justice in Dublin.
Chopra, who is suing for millions in damages for “lost inventory and economic harm,” has since relocated his business to San Ramon.
“They’ve destroyed our lives,” he said Tuesday.