Hearing delayed for man Vallejo police shot in June

VALLEJO — A Vallejo police officer shot an alleged burglary suspect in his nose last month, sources confirmed to the Vallejo Sun.

Despite the injury, Jamazea Deyon Kittell, 27, survived and appeared in a Solano County Courtroom in Fairfield Tuesday afternoon without any bandages on his face.

Kittell’s arraignment was delayed at the request of Deputy Public Defender Nick Filloy. Kittell is currently facing four counts: attempted murder of a police officer, burglary and two related to vehicle theft.

Kittell remains in jail without bail.

A Solano County sheriff’s deputy pushed Kittell, who was in a wheelchair, into the courtroom for the brief hearing Tuesday. Wearing a gray and black Solano County jail uniform, he nodded to members of his family present in the courtroom.

Reggie Kittell, Jamazea's father, said his family didn't know what had happened to their son until last Thursday, more than a week after the shooting. "I'm just glad he's all right," Reggie Kittell said.

Vallejo police Officer Brad Kim shot and wounded Kittell in the early morning hours of June 27. Police allege Kittell was committing a burglary at the Grand gas station at Springs Road and Hilton Avenue.

Police radio broadcasts from that time indicate that the gas station’s owner watched four or five people on live surveillance video enter the building. Police say Kittell got into the driver’s seat of a stolen car, and allegedly struck Kim, sending the officer onto the hood of the car.

Kim shot Kittell, who then allegedly crashed into a building across Hilton Street.

Reggie Kittell said he and Jamazea's mother were able to speak to their son over the phone for the first time Monday night. He told them the bullet entered his nostril and knocked out a few teeth, but he was conscious after and put his hands up.

"The police are calling him Terminator because he spit the bullet out," the elder Kittell said. "We don't understand how a small crime, if one was being committed, could result in him being shot in the face."

Police have not disclosed how many times Kim shot at Kittell. The department initially said it would release video of the shooting Tuesday, but pushed it back to Thursday without explanation. That would be a day after a planned town hall event to discuss the shooting at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Elmer Cave Language Academy.

Vallejo police have not said if video of the incident would be played at the town hall.

Reggie Kittell said in the days following the shooting, he and his family filed missing persons reports with police and the Solano County Sheriff's Office because no one would offer information on Jamazea's whereabouts or condition. It was particularly scary, he said, because he was used to his son checking in nearly every day.

"I just wanted to see his face. He said they kept drugging him when he woke, and he would be pulling tubes out. He said it was torture," Reggie Kittell said. "They were just keeping him away."

Vallejo Police Public Information Officer Rashad Hollis did not respond to questions regarding the shooting on Tuesday.

Kittel is the first Vallejo police shooting in three years, breaking the department’s longest streak of not having shot anyone in at least two decades. That was a drastic decline considering Vallejo was one of the most deadly police departments in California and paid tens of millions of dollars to settle civil rights claims.

The details of the shooting share similarities to Vallejo’s last police shooting three years ago: a burglary suspect shot once in the head.

Vallejo’s previous police shooting occurred June 2, 2020, during wide scale protests and looting in the Bay Area and beyond in response to the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Vallejo Det. Jarrett Tonn fired five times from the backseat of an unmarked pickup truck, striking 22-year-old Sean Monterrosa of San Francisco once in the back of the head.

Solano County District Attorney Krishna Abrams recused her office from weighing if Tonn should face criminal charges for the Monterrosa shooting. The California Department of Justice has since taken that up, but has not provided any update — including to Monterrosa’s family — in two years.

The Solano County Major Crimes Task Force, which is headed by the DA’s office, was established after the Monterrosa shooting and is investigating Kittell’s shooting.

The DA’s office did not reply to emailed questions about Kittell’s shooting.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include information from the Kittell family.