*A Bay Area family is demanding the release of bodycam footage after a young rapper was killed when police officers opened fire after he had fallen asleep in his car.
Police in Vallejo, California, said in a news release that six officers shot “multiple rounds” at Willie McCoy, 20, in the span of four seconds on Saturday night in a Taco Bell parking lot.
It’s unclear how many bullets struck McCoy, but his family said they believe at least 20 may have hit his car, per msn.com.
“It seems like an execution,” McCoy’s cousin and manager, David Harrison, said Wednesday. “It looks like my baby cousin was executed by a firing squad.”
The Vallejo Police Department is working with the Solano County District Attorney’s Office to investigate the shooting.
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Statement from the SRA Central Committee on the killing of Willie McCoy. pic.twitter.com/x4FUFdU8Vn
— Socialist Rifle Association (@SocialistRA) February 14, 2019
In a statement, Vallejo Police Chief Andrew Bidou said a review of the shooting is in its early stages.
The family are awaiting the results of an autopsy and toxicology report.
“It doesn’t take six officers to pump bullets through a car that’s not going anywhere,” Harrison said.
Vallejo police said the incident went down when employees at the Taco Bell called law enforcement about a driver slumped over in a car at the drive-thru. When two patrol officers arrived on the scene, they claim they noticed a handgun in the driver’s lap and called for backup.
“The two officers decided to hold their position and did not attempt to wake the driver,” police said.
Per msn.com:
The officers discussed trying to remove the gun from the driver, but found his door locked. They also noticed the car was actually in drive, so additional units helped to position a marked patrol car in front of McCoy’s car “to prevent forward or erratic movement,” police said.
As a second car was being placed behind McCoy’s car to prevent him from making sudden movements, he woke up.
Police said he was given “several commands” to put his hands up, but he did not comply and appeared to “quickly” move his hands downward to the firearm.
The officers began “fearing for their safety,” and fired their weapons. They continued to yell commands at the driver and then reached through a broken window to unlock his door and begin lifesaving efforts. McCoy was pronounced dead at the scene.
“I don’t think he even had time to react,” Harrison added. “If you’re just waking up from sleep, you don’t know what you have around you and who’s talking to you.”
Harrison said McCoy — known by his stage name Willie Bo — had been on tour with his group, FBG and on the night he was killed, Harrison believes his cousin may have gone to the Taco Bell for food but was so exhausted that he fell asleep inside his car.
Apparently “a fully loaded .40 caliber semiautomatic handgun with an extended magazine” was found on the victim, “which had been reported stolen out of Oregon, authorities said,” according to the MSN report.
Harrison said he didn’t know McCoy to own a firearm.
“He was always talking about being able to escape in his music because a lot of experience living in the Bay Area is police brutality and racial profiling,” Harrison said. “It’s tragic that Willie didn’t escape it himself.”
