*Another day, another man of color has been shot by the police, this time in California.
22-year-old Sean Monterrosa of San Francisco was already kneeling on the ground when he was fatally shot by Vallejo police early Tuesday morning.
According to Chief Shawny Williams, Monterrosa was kneeling in front of a Walgreens he was suspected of breaking into when the officer shot at him five times through his car windshield, per Complex.
Williams claims the officer was one of several who arrived on the scene of a crowd of 10 to 12 people in the Walgreens parking lot at 12:36 a.m.
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Vallejo, CA police killed a man while he was on his knees, claiming he had a gun. It was a hammer.#SeanMonterrosa was 22.
Police claim the officer — on paid leave — reacted to a “perceived threat” after reports of a robbery. Family say he was surrendering. He was shot 5 times. pic.twitter.com/FK5gaQBXfK
— AJ+ (@ajplus) June 4, 2020
Here’s more from Heavy.com:
Officers then observed the crowd filing into two vehicles, a silver truck and a black sedan. Police claim the black sedan then rammed into the unmarked cruiser, injuring the officer inside, before speeding out of the parking lot behind the silver truck. The silver truck was apprehended shortly thereafter.
Williams said Monterrosa was trying to flee the scene in the sedan but changed his mind.
“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 handgun investigations later revealed that the weapon was a long 15-inch hammer tucked into the pocket of his sweatshirt,” Chief Williams said during the press conference.
Williams claims the officer assumed the hammer was a gun and wasted no time taking aim at Monterrosa, firing several rounds but only one bullet reportedly hit the victim.
The cop who shot Monterrosa has not yet been identified, but has been on the force for 18 years.
“He did not see Mr. Monterrosa put his hands on it in a threatening way. So the question here is what threat if any did he actually present,” said Monterrosa family attorney John Burris.
According to the police, Monterrosa was involved in looting the Walgreens amid protests over the police killing of another unarmed man of color, George Floyd.
A GoFundMe page has been set up on behalf of Monterrosa’s family to pay for the funeral and legal expenses.
Vallejo police came under fired last year for the deadly shooting of Willie McCoy, a 20-year-old aspiring rapper who was shot 53 times by cops while asleep in his car at a Taco Bell.
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