Police officer fatally shot man during struggle over weapon

DALY CITY, Calif. ( AP) — A police officer in the San Francisco Bay Area fatally shot a man last week during a routine check on an occupied parked vehicle after officers saw what they believed was a firearm on the lap of a passenger, an official said.

San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe told The San Francisco Chronicle on Tuesday the weapon turned out to be a BB gun.

Daly City police released few details after the fatal April 7 police shooting, but Wagstaffe provided an account of what unfolded that day to the newspaper.

Wagstaffe said a Daly City police officer on patrol stopped to offer assistance to an occupied parked truck with a damaged tire. A woman was in the back seat, and Roger Cornelius Allen, 44, of San Francisco was in the front passenger seat, he said.

The driver got out to speak with the officer, and three more officers showed up to the scene.

Two officers who were on the passenger side of the truck noticed what appeared to be a “Ruger-like” handgun in Allen’s lap and yelled “Gun, gun, gun, gun, gun!’” Wagstaffe said. “Mr. Allen picked the gun up — it is described to us — and held it in his hand.”

One officer leaned in and grabbed Allen’s hand and the gun, “trying to control the gun,” Wagstaffe said.

When the second officer on the passenger side “saw the gun pointed at the face of the officer struggling with Mr. Allen, he reported he feared that his fellow officer was going to be shot in the face,” Wagstaffe said.

He shot toward Allen twice, striking him once in the chest, Wagstaffe said. The officer’s name has not been released.

Allen died at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.

Daly City police do not have body-worn cameras, and Wagstaffe said there is no video of the shooting. The officer who fatally shot Allen has been placed on paid administrative during an investigation, Wagstaffe said.

The driver and the other passenger have been cooperating with investigators, he said.

The District Attorney’s Office is investigating whether the shooting was lawful.