Trove of video released by Napa sheriff’s office omits footage of January police shooting in Vallejo

VALLEJO – The Napa County Sheriff’s Office released a trove of video Wednesday from a January shooting by an American Canyon police officer in Vallejo in response to a public records request from the Vallejo Sun. 

But none of that footage shows the actual shooting.

Officer Joshua Coleman’s body camera batteries died before he engaged in a pursuit on Jan. 11, and he hadn’t been able to return to the charging station, the sheriff’s office said Wednesday. Instead, it released hours of video showing various aspects of the investigation, redacted pursuit videos, and video of Coleman from just after the shooting.

Under state law AB 748, the video was due to be released on Feb. 26, 45 days after the incident. The sheriff’s office released it two weeks later. 

The Jan. 11 shooting happened after an officer attempted to pull over a car for a vehicle code violation in the area of state Highway 29 and American Canyon Road at about 3:15 p.m., according to a statement by American Canyon police.

Police then pursued the tan Lexus into Vallejo’s Country Club Crest neighborhood, where the vehicle continued fleeing onto Mini Drive, Corcoran Avenue and Fairgrounds Drive, according to police scanner audio.

Eventually, as the pursuit continued on Souza Way, the car’s tire blew near Gateway Drive. Multiple people ran from the vehicle, according to the scanner broadcast. The car crashed into a fence.

Heavily redacted dash camera video shows Coleman and Officer Cassaundra Fallon arrive and chase after two suspects who ran in different directions. Coleman said “shots fired” on the radio a short time later.

The department provided body camera video that shows Coleman as he is kneeling next to the wounded suspect, later identified as 18-year-old Demarea Vaughn Rogers III. 

Sheriff’s spokesperson Henry Wofford said that Fallon handed her body camera to Coleman because his was not working. The county’s disclosures did not include body camera video of Fallon arriving at the scene or chasing the other suspect. Coleman appears to be alone when the video begins, and Fallon arrives a short time later. 

“They chased after two different suspects in two different directions,” Wofford said. “She approached him and he grabs her camera and continued to render aid.” 

Coleman’s video has audio as soon as the video begins, but Axon body-worn cameras capture 30 seconds of silent video prior to activation. Wofford said that the county provided all video in its possession, and said he did not know whether Fallon had her body camera active when she arrived nor why Coleman’s video is not preceded by the typical 30 seconds of silence with Axon cameras. He advised the Vallejo Sun to pursue the issue with the Napa County Counsel’s Office.

The video appears to show Coleman’s first interactions with Rogers, just after shooting him twice.

“Hey buddy, where are you hit, bro?” Coleman asks Rogers in the video. “I got you. Hold on, I’m going to save your life.”

“Don’t let me die,” Rogers said. “I just want to see my mom.”

“I thought you were going to try and pull that gun on me,” Coleman said.

“I wasn’t bro,” Rogers said.

Fallon then drove Coleman’s car to meet him. Coleman directed her to pick up a gun in a yard and put it in his car. The two provided first aid to Rogers as other officers arrived. Extensive footage released by the sheriff’s office shows officers searching yards for the second suspect, who was later identified as 18-year-old Jozan Amarion Hill.

Rogers pleaded no contest to carrying a loaded firearm and obstructing  a peace officer on Feb. 21, according to court records. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 22. Hill is charged with evading a police officer, unlawful possession of a firearm, and carrying a firearm that’s not registered to him. He is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing on March 13. 

The sheriff’s office said that the Solano County District Attorney’s Office was in possession of video of the shooting. The sheriff’s office claimed it had been “allowed” to view the video, but was not in possession of it. Wofford said that the sheriff’s office could not access the evidence to conduct its own administrative review until the district attorney’s investigation was complete.

The Solano County District Attorney’s Office has repeatedly sought to withhold video of police shootings since taking the lead in investigations of police shootings in the county as part of a 2020 countywide agreement. The district attorney’s office sought to withhold video of a Solano County Sheriff’s Office shooting in 2022, a Fairfield police shooting later that year, and video of a shooting by Vallejo police in November.

The Napa County District Attorney’s Office also sought to withhold video of the January shooting on the grounds that the person who was shot had survived and was facing criminal charges, according to a Feb. 6 letter from Napa County District Attorney Allison Haley obtained by the Vallejo Sun. 

Coleman is a former Vallejo police officer who joined the Napa sheriff’s office in 2018. The shooting was Coleman’s fifth as a law enforcement officer, including four shootings in Vallejo. That number of shootings is far higher than most other officers. According to the Pew Research Center, only 27% of police officers ever fire their guns in the course of their career.

Coleman was implicated in court testimony in 2022 for participating in the Vallejo police badge bending scandal, where officers bent the tips of their badges to mark fatal shootings.  Coleman testified his badge was bent against his will, but a department superior testified that he was more involved than he said and may have even helped spread the practice to other officers.

Coleman refused to be interviewed for an investigation into the badge bending practice commissioned by the city of Vallejo and conducted by former Sonoma County Sheriff Rob Giordano. But he did give an interview to Vice News in 2022 and discussed Vallejo’s badge-bending scandal in depth.