Suspect arrested in Vallejo shooting, crash that killed Willie McCoy’s sister

VALLEJO – A Rancho Cordova man was arrested on Thursday for allegedly killing 48-year-old Sharmell Mitchell, who was in a car fleeing gunfire when it crashed last month, police said Thursday.

In a news release, Vallejo police said that Jacoby Etter, 46, was arrested in Rancho Cordova with assistance from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office. Etter was booked into Solano County jail on suspicion of murder, according to police.

The crash happened at about 12:35 p.m. on July 16 near the intersection of Vervais Avenue and Tennessee Street, according to police. Initial reports indicated that Mitchell had been ejected from the SUV after it crashed into two other vehicles while fleeing a fourth car whose occupants were shooting at them.

Melissa Nold, who represented Mitchell’s family after her brother Willie McCoy was killed by police in 2019, told the Vallejo Sun last month that it appears that the unidentified driver of the white SUV had clipped another car nearby. The occupants of the other car, angry over the accident, chased and shot at the SUV, where Mitchell was a passenger. 

After the crash, the car shooting at the SUV fled north on Vervais Avenue, according to radio traffic. Police searched for the car but did not find it.

Mitchell often appeared at rallies for her brother after he was shot and killed by Vallejo police in 2019 when he was found unresponsive in a Taco Bell drive-thru, allegedly with a gun on his lap. Six officers fired 55 times at McCoy through the windows of his car. The family received a $5 million settlement in a civil rights lawsuit earlier this year.

Mitchell criticized the police during a vigil last year for not trying harder to get into the car as one of his windows was already broken.

“My baby brother's window was already shattered. It was gone. It was a piece of plastic on there,” Mitchell said during the vigil. “So they could have just took the plastic off of it and opened the door. They could have just walked him out.”

Mitchell experienced bouts of homelessness throughout her life. In 2016, Mitchell was one of a group of squatters that Vallejo police Officer Hans Williams removed from a home on Sonora Pass Road. After discovering she was pregnant, Williams took her to a clinic and stayed with her. She then named her son in honor of Williams.

Since Mitchell died, numerous friends and family posted on Facebook expressing shock and sadness at her death. A memorial is planned on Aug. 20 at 11 a.m. at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church at 1905 Florida St. in Vallejo.