New evidence reportedly has surfaced in the police shooting of rapper Willie McCoy. The family members of McCoy recently had an opportunity to view footage of the shooting, which took place at a Taco Bell in Vallejo, California, on Feb. 9, 2019, according to San Francisco Chronicle.
After viewing the bodycam video from one of the six officers on the scene that night, McCoy’s family says the rising rapper was killed by police while sleeping.
McCoy was reportedly sleeping in his car while at the Taco Bell when someone called police and reported him.
When police arrived, they blocked his car by parking a patrol car in front of the vehicle and another behind it. Without attempting to wake him, six police officers began firing shots inside of McCoy’s vehicle. He was reportedly shot 25 times in the face, throat and upper body.
Police claim that McCoy made a sudden movement, and they feared for their safety.
Although the new evidence should help to move the criminal case against the officers forward, police in California have mostly gotten away with murder when it comes to shooting unarmed Black people.
Police who were involved in the shooting death of Stephon Clark in Sacramento did not face criminal charges. In March 2018, Clark, 22, was shot and killed while running into his grandmother’s backyard. Clark had a cellular phone in his hand that the officers claim they mistook for a gun.
On March 12, a federal judge urged attorneys to settle the Clark family’s multimillion-dollar civil rights lawsuit against the city of Sacramento and the two police officers who shot and killed him.
