Vallejo police sued over officer’s actions in viral TikTok video

VALLEJO – The city of Vallejo was sued on Friday for an incident that went viral on TikTok last October when a Vallejo police officer pulled a woman from a car, slammed her against a cement truck and punched her after she had crashed while fleeing the officer.

The lawsuit on behalf of Maiya Green, who was 19 years old at the time of her arrest, accuses Vallejo police and Officer Colin Eaton of excessive force and assault, among other allegations.

Eaton was pursuing Green for shoplifting at a nearby Kohl’s store. Eaton has a history of discipline for excessive force and was one of six officers who shot and killed Willie McCoy in 2019. The department gave him a medal of merit last month.

“Green did not pose any threat,” the lawsuit states. “Eaton approached frightened Green with his firearm drawn immediately after a traffic collision. He forcefully removed [Green] from the vehicle and slammed [Green] into the cement truck. Rather than make an arrest at this time, Eaton chose to slam [Green] face-first into the ground. Eaton proceeded to punch Green in the face.”

Cellphone video of the incident posted the same day went viral on TikTok. Days after that, when state Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a new stipulated judgment for Vallejo police reform – which has since been withdrawn – Bonta acknowledged he had seen the video and said it was “disturbing” and would be investigated. The Vallejo Sun later obtained Eaton’s body and dash camera video. 

Police said that the incident started when loss prevention staff at the Kohl’s department store at 1190 Admiral Callaghan Lane flagged Eaton down and pointed to a blue Nissan leaving the parking lot on Oct. 13.

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 shows Eaton run to the crashed car and point his gun at the passenger. He wrote in his report that he could see the driver “frantically texting on her phone, and also heard her yelling on her phone.”

The video shows Eaton open the door to arrest the driver. The air bags had deployed. Eaton immediately grabbed the driver’s wrist. “Get out of the car,” he said. “I’m getting out,” she responded. “Get out of the car now,” he said again, as she stepped out. “What are you grabbing me like that for?” she said.

Eaton then swung the driver around by the wrist until she struck the cement truck. As she was standing next to him, he said, “Get out of the car now or I’m going to have to hurt you.” He then threw her to the ground and punched her in the face.

In his report, Eaton wrote that the driver had “immediately tried to break my grip and run” when she got out of the car. “I had a firm hold and redirected her momentum in a circular motion and attempted to take her down to the ground. Unfortunately, a large cement truck that [her] car had blocked was in our way and stopped her momentum.”

Police said they found about $2,000 of suspected stolen merchandise in the Nissan. Police said the store also implicated Green in a previous theft in September. Green was on felony probation for grand theft and shoplifting, and had been arrested earlier in the month for stealing approximately $30,000 worth of merchandise from another business, according to police.

During a court hearing on Oct. 31, 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. 

Eaton has a history of use of force complaints. He fired 13 of the 55 bullets fired into McCoy’s silver Mercedes on Feb. 9, 2019, more than any other officer. Eaton was not disciplined for that incident.

About two months later, Eaton was one of two officers who arrested McCoy’s niece Deyana Jenkins. A lawsuit alleges that Eaton and Officer Jordan Patzer – another officer who killed McCoy – held Jenkins at gunpoint, dragged her out of the car, threw her on the ground and Tased her. A bystander recorded the events on a cell phone.

Jenkins was arrested and taken to jail, but the Solano County District Attorney’s office didn’t charge her with a crime. Jenkins sued the department and her lawsuit is still pending.

Eaton was suspended for stepping on a man’s head during an arrest on April 19, 2020. He had responded to a call of a man exposing himself. As officers arrived, the man had his pants halfway down.

Eaton pulled out his baton as he approached the man and told him “Get down right now, I will fuck you up. Sit down, I will fuck you up.”

Another officer also arrived, whose name is redacted in reports. She told investigators she ordered the man to sit down several times and pushed him over to handcuff him. The other officer told investigators that the man stiffened his limbs to prevent from being handcuffed. Eaton hit the man once with a baton.

According to the officers, the suspect then complied, but Eaton put his foot on the man’s head “to prevent him from moving about and resisting further.”