SF resident was kneeling when fatally shot by Vallejo police during civil unrest

[RandySF]

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.





https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/Attorney-identifies-SF-resident-fatally-shot-by-15315301.php?t=d760583d8b

[NBachers]

2. Disk usage Windows 10?

[Maraya1969]

10. Well I sometimes have problems with disk usage.

[NBachers]

11. Don't we all

[Demovictory9]

3. kick

[BGBD]

4. "I felt threatened"

just isn't an excuse that should cut it. It's a cop out for every time a cop shoots an unarmed person.

The correct bar should be that they felt threatened AND that the victim was capable of being a threat to a life.

Reaching into your glovebox might make someone feel threatened, but without proof that there is a weapon in it there isn't a real threat. Something that "looks like a gun" might make you feel threatened, but if it's a hammer and they are kneeling on the ground outside of your car, there is not a threat.

Maybe a policy that every officer involved death will be brought to a grand jury to decide on. Not an internal investigation, but evidence collected by an independent prosecutor and presented to an independent jury. The officer in question is automatically on limited duty until the jury renders a judgement.

[Captain Stern]

9. Well said

Cops using the "I felt threatened" excuse is just another way that they are held to a lower standard than anyone else.

If I (with my zero hours of law enforcement training) shot someone because I "thought" they had a gun, and were going to shoot me with it, would be in prison if it turned out that that person didn't actually have a gun at all.

However, an officer (with supposedly many hours of training in how to handle these situations) makes the exact same mistake...they are held to a lower standard than most of the rest of us would be.

It seems to me that someone that is highly trained should be held to a higher standard than me, not a lower one.

[diane in sf]

5. He was part of a gang of looters converging on Walgreens for the 2nd or 3rd time that night.

The level of looting here Monday night in Vallejo was unbelievable. The sirens and choppers never stopped from sunset until around 4am. Many groups of up to twenty cars at a time were running everywhere around town. They hit almost every commercial area of the town, many places several times. They were concentrating on drug stores, pot shops, electronics, but almost no major store was left untouched. Many small businesses were also trashed and looted.

I feel sorry for this young man and his family. But the Vallejo PD has a terrible and well-known record for killing people. It’s also well-known that there are not enough police to cover the town effectively—the local crime rate is quite high—which may have made attacking this place under the guise of protest an attractive proposition to regional criminals. Burglary here is practically the town sport.

Sean Monterrosa was doing very illegal stuff and put himself in a position where he got shot by a frightened, or murderous, or maybe nearsighted policeman. It’s almost a choice of suicide by cop.

A lot of this looting of various towns in this area at this time seems highly organized. These are career criminals doing this stuff. The protestors have been law abiding. This organized looting is not spontaneous rage or a protest of George Floyd’s murder, it’s criminal opportunism.

All the above being said, I don’t believe that looting should get a person the death penalty. And every one of these officer caused deaths needs to be thoroughly investigated and officers charged and prosecuted when the shooting is not justified. Because this hasn’t happened here, the murderous cowboy culture has continued unabated in Vallejo for decades.

[CountMyVote4Reality]

7. +1 Thank you for the background. We are ALL so F**ked.

I don't mean that as an ALM retort. Maybe personal video cameras should now be mandatory for everybody like masks. Yes. We should be better citizens. But there is a problem with the "good citizen" training program. Not all citizens are equal.

[Sympthsical]

12. It is absolutely organized

I knew Hilltop was going to be hit before it was - it was being organized online (FB, I believe).

A few stores by me in Fairfield were hit. Fairfield. It’s everywhere and out of hand.

This has nothing to do with the protests. This is opportunism, plain and simple. This is people just looking for an excuse.

[Laelth]

6. This makes me want to scream. n/t

-Laelth

[safeinOhio]

8. For some reason a wallet or cell phone look like a gun in hand of a Black Person.