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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/21/us/willie-mccoy-police-shooting.html
Willie McCoy Was ‘Riddled With Bullets’ After Police Shot Him at Taco Bell, Lawyer Says
A man who had apparently fallen asleep in his car at a Taco Bell drive-through was killed in a barrage of gunfire by six police officers earlier this month in Vallejo, Calif. They said he had a gun in his lap and that he appeared to reach for it, but his friends and relatives are calling for the officers’ body camera footage to be released.
The man, identified as Willie McCoy, 20, had injuries so severe that it was hard to tell how many times he had been shot, said Melissa C. Nold, a lawyer for his family. She saw his body in person last week and estimated that there were about 25 gunshot wounds.
“It was just very, very disturbing,” she said. “He was just riddled with bullets. It was really a shock how many times he was actually struck.”
While the body camera footage has not been made public, a bystander filmed the encounter and posted a video to social media. It appeared to show Mr. McCoy’s car, at some distance and out of focus. A sudden burst of gunfire could be heard, lasting for about four seconds.
David Harrison, a cousin of Mr. McCoy’s who saw his body after the shooting, said he did not trust the police department’s version of events. “Willie was shot a whole lot of times,” he said. “Our belief is that Willie was executed, like a firing squad.”
In a statement last week, Peter Bibring, the director of police practices for the American Civil Liberties Union of California, said that California’s laws governing the use of deadly force are too permissive. “Police officers must use deadly force judiciously, with respect for human rights, with a belief in the sanctity of all human life and only when absolutely necessary,” he said. “While this seems like a common-sense standard, it isn’t the current practice in California.”
On Wednesday, the Vallejo Police Department released the names of the six officers involved in response to a public records request from The Mercury News, a newspaper based in San Jose. The paper reported that one of those officers had shot and killed another man during a physical confrontation last year.
Those officers have been placed on administrative leave, and the police department is working with the Solano County District Attorney’s Office to conduct an investigation, including a review of the officers’ body camera footage. It is unclear when, or whether, that footage will be released publicly.
In a tearful address in front of the Vallejo City Council last week, a young woman identifying herself as Mr. McCoy’s girlfriend criticized the police for firing so many times. “I want him to get justice,” she said, adding that she wanted to see footage of the gunfire that killed Mr. McCoy. “I just wanted to ask for the body cameras of those policemen, and I feel like they should get fired,” she said.
Mr. McCoy’s case could become an early test for a new state law — passed last year and taking effect in July — that was meant to increase police transparency in California, which has one of the highest rates of police shootings in the country. The law encourages the release of police body-camera footage, especially after 45 days have passed since an episode like a police shooting.
But the law makes room for exceptions, said Lara Bazelon, an associate professor and the director of the Criminal & Juvenile Justice and Racial Justice Clinics at the University of San Francisco School of Law. She said the police could still withhold evidence for a year or longer if they make a strong enough case that disclosure would interfere with an investigation.
“McCoy’s case has gotten national attention, which ratchets up the pressure to disclose the body-worn camera footage sooner rather than later,” Professor Bazelon said. “The longer the police hold back crucial documentary evidence of what happened, the more it looks to the general public like they have something to hide.”
The police department did not respond to a request for comment. According to the statement released last week, officers arrived at the Taco Bell shortly after 10:30 p.m. on Feb. 9, after an employee called the police to report a man slumped over in his car.
Officers saw that Mr. McCoy appeared to be asleep and had a handgun in his lap. They said that they tried to retrieve the weapon but could not open the driver’s side door because it was locked. Officers were moving their patrol vehicles to place them in front of and behind Mr. McCoy’s car when he woke up, they said.
“The driver began to suddenly move and looked at the uniformed patrol officers,” the statement said. “Officers gave the driver several commands to put his hands up. The driver did not comply and instead he quickly moved his hands downward for the firearm. Fearing for their safety, six officers fired their duty weapons at the driver.”
The police said that Mr. McCoy had had a fully loaded semiautomatic handgun with an extended magazine in his lap, and that the weapon had been reported stolen from Oregon.
Mr. Harrison said he doubted that Mr. McCoy had a gun at all, and he added that a window on his cousin’s car was broken and covered with plastic, so he could not understand why the officers were stopped by a locked door.
“They woke him up with gunfire,” he said, adding that a thorough investigation was necessary and that body camera videos should be released.
“I think the department needs to take a closer look at their officers, and at their policies that allowed this to happen,” Ms. Nold said.
