Vallejo mayor Bob Sampayan welcomes Department of Justice help

Vallejo Times-Herald, by John Glidden, June 6, 2020

“We need a police department our community can trust.”

Vallejo Mayor Bob Sampayan said Saturday he fully supports a partnership between the city of Vallejo and the California Department of Justice to put together a policing plan that will reform the department’s policies and practices.

“We need to have an objective and impartial eye to look at the police department,” added Sampayan, a retired sergeant with the Vallejo Police Department.

On Friday, both the city and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced the collaboration three days after Sean Monterrosa, 22, was shot and killed outside a Vallejo Walgreens.

Monterrosa is the fourth person to be fatally shot by Vallejo police during the past four years.

“Our communities are safer when our police departments can build public trust through good policies, practices, and training. This review and reform agreement we announce today with the City of Vallejo represents a critical step the Vallejo Police Department must take to build trust with people who have lost faith in them,” Becerra said in a news release. “When our communities speak up, we must listen — and, in recent days, people across California and the nation, and in Vallejo have bravely come together to make their voices heard. This is only a first step in our broader fight for racial justice. We must all do our part, and we must do it now.”

The Bay Area News Group, along with the Times-Herald, and Open Vallejo reported Friday that Vallejo officer Jarrett Tonn shot and killed Monterrosa after the officer mistook a hammer in Monterrosa’s waistband for a gun. Tonn fired his service weapon at Monterrosa through the windshield of his police cruiser outside the Walgreens on Redwood Street.

Police were responding to a call of looting at the store as the entire city of Vallejo was under a curfew.

Vallejo police Lt. Michael Nichelini, president of the Vallejo Police Officer’s Association, couldn’t be reached for comment on Saturday about the collaboration between the city and the California Department of Justice.

The union did release a statement on Friday in response to the Monterrosa shooting, stating “the officer is facing multiple death threats to him and his children. We ask the public to support this officer and the good work the overwhelming majority of all officers perform to keep our communities safe.”

“Throughout the night officers were responding to groups of armed looters all over the city. Seconds before this confrontation in the parking lot of a Walgreens, an officer put on the radio that it appeared the looters were armed. As officers arrived, Mr. Monterrosa was attempting to flee with others in a vehicle. Rather than continuing his escape, Mr. Monterrosa chose to engage the responding officers,” the VPOA statement reads. “Mr. Monterrosa abruptly pivoted back around toward the officers, crouched into a tactical shooting position, and grabbed an object in his waistband that appeared to be the butt of a handgun. At no time did Mr. Monterrosa make any movements consistent with surrendering. Fearing that Mr. Monterrosa was about to open fire on the officers in the vehicle, the officer was forced to fire multiple rounds through his windshield. The officer used deadly force as a last resort because he had no other reasonable option to prevent getting shot.”

Sampayan said he’s confident the comprehensive policing plan will help improve the relationship between the community and police department.

“This will help to bring back the public’s trust, having an open and transparent police department,” he added. “Our police chief, Shawny Williams, has been tasked with change — I have a lot of faith in Chief Williams.”

Sampayan confirmed by signed the Mayor’s Pledge issued by former President Barack Obama to address police use of force policies. He also said he’s pursuing the policies in “8 can’t wait,” which include banning police choke holds, requiring de-escalation, requiring a warning before police shoot, exhausting all other methods before shooting, having a duty to interfere, banning shooting at moving vehicles, requiring use of force continuum, and requiring comprehensive training.

“I want to start a dialogue with the community,” Sampayan previously said.

Following a closed session of the Vallejo City Council on Friday, it was announced councilors had directed city staff to place an item on Tuesday’s council agenda to ratify an agreement with the California Department of Justice (Cal DOJ).

The seven-person council will also vote on directing staff to a letter to Becerra, asking his office to conduct a thorough and independent criminal investigation into the Monterrosa shooting.

San Francisco Chronicle, by Megan Cassidy June 3, 2020

The man fatally shot by Vallejo police as the city erupted in chaos Tuesday was kneeling outside a Walgreens and not carrying a firearm when an officer opened fire — sending five bullets through his own windshield.

Sean Monterrosa, 22, of San Francisco died after the shooting at around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, but police did not tell the public the man was killed — or disclose the circumstances of the shooting — until Wednesday at a news conference outside City Hall, a day after calling in 50 troops from the National Guard to help control protests and rioting sparked by the Minnesota police killing of George Floyd.

In a Wednesday afternoon news conference, Vallejo Police Chief Shawny Williams said the officer believed he saw the butt of a handgun poking out near Monterrosa’s waist, and opened fire “due to this perceived threat.”

Williams did not say how far the officer, who was still in his vehicle, was from Monterrosa.

“Investigations later revealed that the weapon was a long, 15-inch hammer, tucked into the pocket of a sweatshirt,” Williams said.

The shooting is under investigation by the Vallejo police and the Solano County district attorney’s office. The officer, an 18-year veteran of the force, has been placed on administrative leave.

The killing early Tuesday morning occurred as protests, lootings and civil unrest erupted across the country. That evening in Vallejo, city officials said about 100 people and nearly 40 vehicles “surrounded” the police department, and rocks and bottles were thrown at officers.

The killing of Monterrosa, who was Latino, is almost certain to fan the flames of an already outraged community, after activists here say for years they have run up against a police department that has disproportionately targeted people of color and is rarely held accountable for its actions.

“My brother was murdered out here by a cop, too — they got no justice,” said Alicia Saddler, who is the sister of Angel Ramos, and who attended the press conference. “Now this man was on his knees? Unarmed? A hammer is not a weapon.”

For Ramos, whose 21-year-old brother was shot and killed by Vallejo police after they responded to a fight at a home, Monterrosa’s death was chillingly familiar.

“He should be here. He should be alive,” she said. “This cop needs to be arrested and taken to jail, period.”

The incidents leading to Monterrosa’s shooting began late Monday evening, when police responded to reports of a looting at a Walgreens on Broadway and Redwood Street, Williams said at the news conference.

Looters initially fled the scene, but about 12:15 a.m. looters had returned and were attempting to break into the building, Williams said. The responding unit reported seeing 10 to 12 potential looters in the parking lot, and police also saw a young man dressed in black, who appeared to be armed, in front of the building, Williams said.

As a police vehicle drove into the parking lot, at least one officer reported potential looters inside two vehicles, a black sedan and a silver truck.

Williams said officers in a second unit saw a single male dressed in black outside the Walgreens, “holding what appeared to be a weapon.”

“This individual appeared to be running toward the black sedan but suddenly stopped, taking a kneeling position, and placing his hands above his waist, revealing what appeared to be the butt of a handgun,” Williams said.

The officer in the second unit opened fire, striking Monterrosa once.

In police scanner traffic of the incident, an officer can be heard saying, “wearing all black, looks like they’re armed—possibly armed.”

“We got shots fired,” an officer is heard saying 22 seconds later.

After the shooting, police scanner traffic captured the ensuing scene, which Williams talked about at the press conference: The black sedan rammed one of the police vehicles, Williams said, which set off the airbag and injured an officer.

The two suspect vehicles fled the scene, prompting a chase into Contra Costa County, where the driver of the silver truck was apprehended, Williams said.

Civil rights attorney John Burris, who is representing Monterrosa’s family, said he was “troubled” by the shooting.

“Notwithstanding what he’s accused of doing, you don’t kill people because they’re looters,” he said.

Burris said he’s awaiting more information on the case, including police body camera footage of the incident.

At the press conference, Williams declined to answer reporters’ and advocates’ questions on whether he believed the officer’s use of force was excessive, but said policy doesn’t preclude police from firing through windshields.

“I would like to say since I’ve been here in the city of Vallejo, we have made many changes in terms of our de-escalation policy, in terms of our body-worn camera policy,” he said. “So there are there are big positive things that are happening.”

When a reporter asked asked how de-escalation was used in this case, Williams said the officers’ intent was to stop and arrest the perpetrators in the Walgreens area.

“The officers reacted to a perceived threat,” he said.

When asked why police waited so long to announce that the shooting was fatal, Williams said he didn’t yet have the information that Monterrosa had died. Williams said on Wednesday he was unaware of the time of Monterrosa’s death, and denied the suggestion that police waited until after the Tuesday evening protest to release the information.

Williams vowed to release body camera footage as soon as possible, prior to the required 45-day legal deadline, in the name of “rapid transparency.”