VALLEJO – When six Vallejo police officers fired 55 times into a silver Mercedes and killed Willie McCoy on Feb. 13, 2019, it appeared to be a tipping point for the Vallejo Police Department. 

Data showed that the department was one of the most violent police agencies in the state. Not only that, but the high rate of shootings and other civil rights complaints was expensive. Vallejo paid more in civil rights payouts per officer than other agencies and the city was forced to leave its municipal insurance pool in 2018.

The McCoy shooting seemed to force Vallejo to make a change. It made international headlines and led a police captain to discover a tradition where officers bent the tips of their badges after a shooting. The police chief retired shortly after that and the city ordered an evaluation of the department, which found a culture of antagonism with the community. A new chief was hired to help reform the department and the state Department of Justice entered into a contract with the city to complete 45 reforms.

For a time, it appeared to be working. According to department statistics, use of force was dramatically reduced. For three years, no Vallejo police officer fired their weapon on duty.

But after the departure of former Vallejo police Chief Shawny Williams, who suddenly resigned in November 2022 after a monthslong pressure campaign by the Vallejo Police Officers Association, much of that progress appears to have unraveled. Department statistics show a dramatic rise in use of force by officers in 2023.

The department now argues that its official use of force statistics are unreliable. But another metric points to a rise in force by officers: legal exposure. The city has seen an increase in claims filed by civil rights attorneys for force incidents by police officers, which typically precedes a lawsuit. 

Melissa Nold, a Vallejo-based civil rights attorney, said that not only is she filing more claims recently but she is getting more inquiries from potential clients, and she noticed the uptick as soon as Williams left.

"The only thing I really can attribute it to is Williams was there holding the leash," she said. "We know based on not getting calls, and we're back to where we were several years ago."

James Cook, another civil rights attorney whose firm Burris Nisenbaum Curry & Lacy filed three claims with the city late last year, also said that his office has seen an increase in inquiries.

"It seemed like things were kind of dying down for those guys and now we've definitely had more inquiries,” Cook said. “There was a whole shakeup and things might've died down because of that.”

Error prone record keeping

One problem in tracking the department’s progress is that the department’s use of force statistics can be unreliable or difficult to compare year to year. Official department statistics show that reported use of force incidents quadrupled in 2023, with increases in nearly every force category. 

But in a statement, Vallejo police said that the department had expanded its use of force tracking processes in 2023, making year to year comparisons "confusing."

"The new process significantly captures much more data compared to VPD’s previous [use of force] tracking process," the statement said. "This expanded method now includes lower-level force types, such as control holds and ground control techniques, regardless of complaint of pain or injury."

Because of this change, the department said it saw particularly large increases in tracked incidents of ground takedowns – which went from a reported 28 incidents in 2022 to 121 incidents in 2023 – and control holds, which shot up from only two in 2022 to 136 in 2023. 

But officers also used Tasers, batons, beanbag rounds and flashbangs more frequently in 2023. There was also an increase in incidents when force caused severe injury, which happened four times in 2023 but not at all in 2022, according to Vallejo police data.

The increase comes despite that crime is down in most categories and there are fewer Vallejo police officers on the force. The department has faced a staffing shortage that led the City Council to declare a state of emergency in July.

The department’s data has included several notable errors. In December, the department revised down the number of force incidents which caused severe injury. It had previously reported six incidents had caused great bodily injury rather than four. 

Under California law, the department must release body camera video of incidents that cause great bodily injury. But after the Vallejo Sun requested video of the incidents, the city said that two incidents were mistakenly put in that category and only met the threshold for serious bodily injury, a lower standard that does not require the city to release video.

Additionally, a dog bite incident in 2022 was not counted in use of force statistics until after an inquiry from the Vallejo Sun. Previously, department statistics said that officers did not deploy dogs at all during 2022, but the city recently settled a lawsuit over a police dog bite in 2022 for $40,000. 

Vallejo police spokesperson Sgt. Rashad Hollis acknowledged that the 2022 use of force statistics were inaccurate and said that the professional standards division would review the data to re-release it. Department statistics now say that police used dogs five times in 2022.

The department has a long history of releasing questionable data on officers' use of force. The city launched an interactive use of force data dashboard in 2020 produced by contractor Police Strategies LLC. But the data did not include two shootings in 2018: the fatal shooting of Ronell Foster on Feb. 13, 2018, and the shooting of Dominic Milano, who was shot after a pursuit into Oakland on Nov. 1, 2018, and survived. More than three years later, the data has not been corrected.

A report by the same firm found that there was a 33% reduction in overall use of force by officers from 2020 to 2021. The VPOA argued that individual officers weren’t using less force and said the reduction was because there were fewer officers in the department. Still, the reported increase in 2023 comes as the city has even fewer officers.

New claims filed for six use of force incidents in 2023

Since September, civil rights attorneys have filed six new claims for damages with the city of Vallejo. Such claims typically precede a lawsuit. The city of Vallejo has historically paid disproportionately more than other cities for allegations of police misconduct. With the reported decline in force incidents, the city had been facing fewer new claims.  Here are the outstanding claims filed for incidents in 2023:

Officers allegedly dragged unconscious woman from vehicle by hair

A claim filed by Daisy Romero and her husband Gonzalo Romero Hernandez alleges that the couple were passengers in the backseat of a vehicle when the driver crashed in March. When police arrived, they ordered the Romeros to exit the vehicle without checking to see if they had suffered injuries, then dragged Daisy Romero out by her hair while she was unconscious, the claim alleges. 

When Gonzalo Romero tried to record the incident on his phone, officers allegedly knocked the phone out of his hands, pushed him to the ground, choked him and slammed his face into the concrete. Vallejo police alleged that Daisy Romero was belligerent while throwing up outside the vehicle, lunged at an officer, and tried to grab his gun. The couple is represented by Vallejo attorney Melissa Nold.

Jamazea Kittell shooting

Vallejo police Officer Brad Kim shot Jamazea Kittell in the face on June 27 after Kim responded to a burglary call at a gas station. Kittell was fleeing the gas station in a Dodge Charger. As he was pulling out, Kim ran in front of his vehicle with his gun drawn, then shot Kittell as he drove forward. Kittell survived and was charged with attempting to murder Kim as well as burglary and charges related to vehicle theft.

Citing videos shown in court during Kittell’s preliminary hearing, Judge Robert Bowers ruled that Kittell should only face charges at trial of assault with a deadly weapon, finding that there was insufficient evidence that Kittell had tried to kill Kim. Defense attorneys argued that Kittell was attempting to flee and Kim got in the way of his car. 

A new department policy took effect days after the shooting which instructed Kim not to fire in those circumstances. The law firm of Pointer & Buelna submitted a claim on behalf of Kittell late last year. 

Couple violently arrested during traffic stop

Calvin and Jayme Rush were arrested outside of their home in Vallejo on June 30. Calvin Rush said that he was returning home from work at a convenience store and was followed by a Vallejo police officer for nearly a mile. The officer attempted to pull Rush over a few blocks from his home. After Rush stopped, the officer claimed that he had pulled him over because he was driving 55 mph in a residential area, but Rush disputes that he was driving that fast. 

As Rush stopped in front of his home, his wife Jayme Rush came outside. She approached her husband’s passenger side window, confronting the officer. After a brief argument with officers, a large male officer stepped onto the Rushes’ property, lunged at Jayme Rush and threw her to the ground. The Vallejo Sun published video of the arrest shortly after it occurred The Solano County District Attorney’s Office declined to charge the Rushes for the incident.

The Rushes are represented by attorney Stanley Goff, who told the Vallejo Sun, “We are glad to know that the DA's office declined to file any charges. Now we can get to the work of holding these officers accountable for what they did.”

Alleged assault of minor during traffic stop

In a previously unreported incident on July 3, Vallejo police allegedly violently arrested a driver during a traffic stop as well as one of two minor passengers. According to a claim submitted by the law firm of Burris Nisenbaum Curry & Lacy, the two minors were passengers in a car driven by one of their mother’s friends when police pulled the driver over in the parking lot of the Walgreens at 1050 Redwood St. 

The officers ordered the driver out of the car, handcuffed her and then pushed her onto the pavement, the claim states. One of the two minor passengers moved over to the driver’s seat and protested the violent arrest. The officers then pulled her out of the car through the window and she landed face-first on the pavement, according to the claim. She was bruised and the claim alleges that both passengers were psychologically traumatized.

Shoplifting suspect punched after pursuit

A cellphone video showing an officer punch a woman in the face after a crash went viral on TikTok in October. Police said that the violent arrest was connected to a shoplifting incident at the nearby Kohl’s department store. Loss prevention staff at the store flagged down Vallejo police Officer Colin Eaton and pointed out a blue Nissan leaving the parking lot.

When Eaton tried to stop the Nissan, the driver fled. Eaton pursued the car until the driver ran a red light and collided with an SUV and a cement truck. Police said that a mother and her two four-year-old sons were in the SUV. The crash injured the mother but the two children were not hurt.

Body and dash camera video published by the Vallejo Sun shows Eaton run to the crashed car and point his gun at the passenger. Eaton then moved to the passenger door and opened the door to arrest the driver. Eaton grabbed the driver’s wrist, swung her around so she struck the cement truck, threw her to the ground and punched her in the face.

The driver, later identified as 19-year-old Maiya Green, pleaded no contest to grand theft and evading police. The evading charge was reduced to a misdemeanor and a charge of hit-and-run causing injury was dismissed as part of a plea deal. Green was sentenced to 364 days in jail. The Burris Nisenbaum Curry & Lacy law firm submitted a claim in November alleging Eaton used excessive force.

Officer shot at teen’s back during chase

Vallejo police Corporal Matthew Komoda shot a juvenile suspect during a foot pursuit on Nov. 20. The suspect was one of two people who allegedly robbed two brothers outside of Seafood City on Sonoma Boulevard and fled in a white Lexus. 

Komoda joined in the pursuit and overtook two other pursuing police vehicles at nearly 100 mph to become the lead police vehicle in the chase. The Lexus ran a red light and crashed into two other vehicles. The occupants fled on foot. 

Komoda got out of the car and chased them. “Get your hands up! Get your fucking hands up!” Komoda can be heard yelling on his body camera while approaching the car. “He’s got a gun,” Komoda yelled three times before firing twice, hitting the 17-year-old suspect in the arm. 

Body camera and surveillance video that was played in court showed that Komoda shot while the suspect’s back was to him. Komoda had previously testified in court that a superior bent his badge after a shooting, part of a practice of officers marking shootings, but said that he didn’t want him to. The juvenile suspect is represented by Burris Nisenbaum Curry & Lacy.