*Six California police officers responding to a call about a man asleep in his car parked in the drive-thru at a fast food eatery, fired-off 55 shots at him in 3.5 seconds. According to a recent independent use-of-force report, the officer’s tactics were deemed “reasonable.”
On Thursday, the attorney representing the family of slain rapper Willie McCoy dismissed the report, which found that officers acted reasonably in the February shooting that the victim’s family has called an “execution by a firing squad.”
The officers fired 55 times at the 20-year-old in the span of 3.5 seconds, shortly after he woke up from sleeping in his car in the drive-thru lane of a Taco Bell restaurant.
The killing of McCoy sparked national outrage and led to intense scrutiny of the Vallejo police department.
OTHER NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: Police Bodycam Shows California Rapper Wasn’t Awake When Police ‘Executed’ Him
David Blake report says 6 California police officers “ACTED REASONABLY” when they fired 55 times at 20-yr-old #WillieMcCoy in the span of 3.5 seconds, murdering him while he was SLEEP IN HIS CAR at Taco Bell.
Same police consultant said murder of #StephonClark was “reasonable.” pic.twitter.com/S4OW6rJ5ta
— Bishop Talbert Swan (@TalbertSwan) June 14, 2019
The 51-page report by David Blake, a paid “expert” and retired officer, concluded that the killing was “in line with contemporary training and police practices associated with use of deadly force”. He said “the 55 rounds fired by 6 officers in ~3.5 seconds is reasonable based upon my training and experience as a range instructor as well as through applied human factors psychology”.
Attorney John Burris noted to USA TODAY that Blake also supported the police in the fatal 2018 shooting of Stephon Clark.
“It only means to me that local police agencies have found a person they can count on to support their position,” Burris said.
Melissa Nold, an attorney for the family, criticized the report, saying, “Each bullet has to be justified,” and adding, of Blake: “He gets paid to defend police when they shoot people. We know who he is.”
As we previously reported, police in the Bay Area city of Vallejo said the incident went down when employees at the Taco Bell called 911 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 McCoy’s lap and called for backup.
The family’s description of events after viewing the bodycam footage differs from the police’s official statement.
Police said as McCoy “quickly moved his hands downward” toward his gun, so six officers “fearing for their safety” shot him in four seconds. There is no mention whether the victim fired his weapon, and none of the officers were injured.
Attorneys for Willie’s family said he was hit about in the face, throat and upper body.
One officer is allegedelly heard on the footage saying to another of McCoy that “if he moves,” then gestures that he knows “what to do.
“What we saw was a sleeping man,” David Harrison, a cousin of McCoy said of the footage. “He reaches with his right arm to his left shoulder, scratching. He wasn’t awake. There wasn’t enough time for him to wake up.”
He added, “They have said he reached for a gun. We never saw that.”
One of the officer’s who fired at McCoy previously shot and killed an unarmed man, and another was sued by the family of a teenager for police brutality, according to The Guardian.
Police have not released the bodycam footage publicly, citing the ongoing investigation.
